CIHM 
Microfiche 


(l\/lonographs) 


ICn/IH 

Collection  de 
microfiches 
(monographies) 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


t 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibliographir'!ly  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


0 


Coloured  covers  / 
Couverture  de  couleur 


I      I   Covers  danrtaged  / 


Couverture  endommagte 


□   Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Couverture  restaur^  et/ou  pellicula 

I      I   Cover  title  missing  /  Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

I I   Coloured  maps  /  Cartes  g^ographiques  en  couleur 

□   Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)  / 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

□   Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 

Bound  with  other  material  / 
Reli^  avec  d'autres  documents 

Only  edition  available  / 
Seule  Edition  disponible 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion  along 
interior  margin  /  La  reliure  serr^e  peut  cause;  de 
I'ombre  ou  de  la  distorsion  le  long  de  la  marge 
int^rieure. 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restorations  may  appear 
within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  have  been 
omitted  from  filming  /  Use  peut  que  certaines  pages 
blanches  ajout^es  lors  d'une  restauration 
apparaissent  dans  le  texte,  mais,  lorsque  cela  6tait 
possible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  ^t^  film^s. 

Additional  comments  / 
Commentaires  suppl§mentaires: 


D 
D 

n 


D 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire  qu'il  lui  a 
6\6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire qui  sont  peut-6tre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibli- 
ographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifk:ation  dans  la  m^tfio- 
de  nonnale  de  filmage  sont  indiquds  ci-dessous. 

I   Coloured  pages  /  Pages  de  couleur 

I I   Pages  damaged  /  Pages  endommag6es 


D 

Q 

D 
0 

D 

D 
D 


D 


Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Pages  restaur^es  et/ou  pellicul^es 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed  / 
Pages  d^olor^s,  tachet^es  ou  piques 

Pages  detached  /  Pages  d^tach^es 

Showthrough  /  Transparence 

Quality  of  print  varies  / 
Quality  in^gale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  material  / 
Comprend  du  materiel  suppl^mentaire 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata  slips, 
tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  image  /  Les  pages  totalement  ou 
partiellement  obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une 
pelure,  etc.,  ont  6\6  film^es  k  nouveau  de  fa^on  h 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 

Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 
discolourations  are  filmed  twice  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant  ayant  des 
colorations  variables  ou  des  decolorations  sont 
film^s  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la  meilleure  image 
possible. 


D 


This  hern  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below  / 

Ce  document  est  film*  au  taux  de  riduction  indiqui  cislessous. 


lOx 

14x 

18x 

22x 

26x 

30x 

• 

12x 

16x 

20x 

24x 

28x 

32x 

Tha  copy  filmed  h«r«  hai  b««n  reproduced  thanks 
to  tha  ganarosity  of: 

Stauffer  Library 
Quaen's  Unf varsity 


L'axamplaira  filmi  fut  raproduit  grica  k  la 
g4n4rosit*  da: 

Stauffer  Library 
Quaan's  Unl varsity 


Tha  imagas  appearing  here  ere  the  best  euellty 
possible  considering  the  condition  end  legibility 
of  the  originei  copy  end  In  keeping  with  the 
filming  contrect  specificationa. 


Las  images  suivsntes  ont  Ate  reproduites  svee  le 
plus  grend  soin.  compte  tenu  de  Is  condition  et 
de  le  neneti  de  I'exempleire  film*,  et  en 
conformity  evec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmege. 


Original  copies  in  printed  peper  covers  ere  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  end  ending  on 
the  last  psge  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  beck  cover  when  eppropriata.  All 
other  originei  copiea  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  pege  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres* 
sion.  end  ending  on  the  lest  pege  with  e  printed 
or  illuetrated  impreaaion. 


Les  exempleires  origineux  dont  le  couverture  en 
pepier  est  imprimis  sont  filmAs  en  commen^ant 
per  le  premier  plet  et  en  terminent  soit  par  la 
darniire  pege  qui  comporte  une  empreime 
d'impression  ou  d'illustrstion,  soit  par  le  second 
plet.  selon  le  ees.  Tous  les  sutres  exemplaires 
origineux  sont  filmte  en  commer.9snt  par  le 
premiere  pege  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustrstion  et  en  terminent  per 
le  derniire  pege  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 


The  lest  recorded  freme  on  eech  microfiche 
shell  contein  the  symbol  —^  (meening  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  ▼  (meening  "END"), 
whichever  epplies. 


Un  dee  symboles  suivonts  sppsreitre  sur  la 
derniire  imege  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
ces:  le  symbols  -^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE '.  le 
symbols  ▼  signifie  "FIN  ". 


Meps.  plates,  cherts,  etc..  mey  be  filmed  et 
different  reduction  retios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  ere  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hend  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bonom.  as  many  frames  es 
required.  The  following  diegrems  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  csrtes.  plenches.  tableeux.  etc..  pcuvent  itre 
film^s  A  des  teux  de  reduction  diffArents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grend  pour  itre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichA.  il  est  film*  A  partir 
de  I'engle  supArieur  geuche.  de  geuche  i  droite. 
et  de  heut  en  bes.  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'imeges  nAcesseire.  Les  disgremmes  suivants 
illustrent  le  mithode. 


1  2  3 


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2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

MICROCOTY   RESOIUTION   TiST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


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1.25 


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2.5 


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Adult  and  Child 


HOW  TO  HELP 
HOW  NOT  TO  HINDER 

A  STUDY  IN 

DEVELOPMENT  BY  COMRADESHIP 


JAMES    L.    HUGHES,  LL.D. 

Forty  Ytati  Insi  .'or  of  Sekoolt,  Toronto 

AUiBOR  or 

M.9TAKM  IN  TEACHING.    HoW  TO  SECURE  AND  R.TAIN 
ATTENTION.   FROEBEL'a    EdccaTIONAL    LaW«. 

Dickens  as  an  Educator,  Rain- 
bows ON  War  Clouds,  etc. 


SYHACUflE,   N.    T. 


C.  W.  UARDEEN,  PUBLISHER 


0  76:i.-? 


Copyright.  1920.  by  C.  W.  Babdeen 


Publisher's  note 

My  experience  as  a  teacher,  as  a  father, 
as  a  grandfather,  leads  me  to  believe  the 
doctrine  of  discipline  here  advocated  sound 
and  fundamental.  Who  has  not  seen  a 
child  of  two  busy  and  happy  with  his  own 
plans,  and  the  same  child  at  ten  listless, 
sullen,  rebellious,  mischievous?  A  too 
common  type  of  family  and  of  school 
discipline  has  been  epitomized  in  the  moth- 
er's direction  to  the  maid,  "Bridget,  go 
into  the  next  room  and  see  what  Johnny 
is  doing  and  tell  him  he  mustn't." 

The  child's  activity  is  not  to  be  repressed 
and  deadened,  but  to  be  encouraged,  stimu- 
lated, shared.  "Come,  let  us  live  with 
our  children,"  said  Froebel.  Let  the  per- 
son who  picks  up  this  book  read  Chapter 
XVIII,  and  if  it  does  not  lead  to  reading 
the  rest  of  the  book  entrust  the  training 
of  children  to  some  one  else. 


i  i 


ADULT  AND  CHILD 


I 

II 
III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

XIII 
XIV 
XV 
XVI 
XVII 
XVIII 
XIX 
XX 
XXI 
XXII 
XXIII 
XXIV 
XXV 


Contents 

Training  the  child  for  power...     9 

Developing  individuality 17 

The  ideal  of  unity 29 

Kindling  the  child 39 

The  chiM's  achieving  power 50 

Physical ,  intellectual ,  moral 64 

Storing  with  knowledge 71 

Character,  ideals,  vision 83 

The  emotional  nature 94 

Respect  for  law 105 

Conscious  responsibility 118 

Consciousness  of  power,  not  of 

weakness 123 

Control  and  spontaneity 128 

Courtesy  and  reverence 132 

Freedom  and  obedience 135 

Coercion  weakens I3,s 

Co-operation  stimulates 141 

Life  should  be  joyous 144 

Achieving  vision 147 

Habits  15? 

Power  and  character    157 

Good  and  bad  childrcMi 163 

The  right  of  choice I6S 

Spiritual  vision 173 

A  vital  educational  creed ISO 


ADULT  AND  CHILD 

Chapter   I 

What  should  adulthood  do  in  developing  the 
child's  power  and  character? 

In  the  old  methods  of  training  the  child, 
the  adult  was  the  direct  and  active  agent; 
the  child  himself  should  be  the  chief  agent 
in  his  own  true  development.  His  vital 
character  must  be  based  on  the  develop- 
ment of  his  own  selfhood  or  individuality, 
and  his  selfhood  can  be  developed  only 
by  his  own  self-activity.  Adult  inter- 
ference, adult  coercion,  and  adult  lack  of 
sympathetic  reverence  for  the  child  as  a 
thought  of  God,  and  a  plan  of  God,  have 
in  the  past  dwarfed  the  child's  true  in- 
dividuality. 

Adulthood  has  done  too  much  of  the 
training  of  the  child,  and  it  has  trained 
abng    irreverent    and    coercive   lines,    so 

9 


10 


Adult  and  child 


that  the  development  of  the  image  of  God 
in  th«  child  has  been  prevented  instead  of 
promoted. 

Should   adulthood   cease   to   train   the 
chad?    No.    It   should   value   the   vital 
character  training  of  the  child,  and  study 
Its  fundamental  principles  more  than  it 
has  ever  done.     It  should  first  learn  clearly 
the  profound  truth,  that  positive  training 
produces    power,    and    that    negative   or 
coercive  training  essentially  weakens  power. 
Power  in  every  element  of  human  develop- 
ment,  physical,   inteUectual,   and   moral, 
increases  by  use  and  is  weakened  by  inter- 
ference with  its  us  •,   )r  by  neglect  to  call 
It  mto  activity.    Adulthood  should  learn, 
too,  that  vital  character  growth  must  be 
from  within  and  not  from  without.    A 
child    cannot    be    "sand-papered    into    a 
saint". 

Froebel's  supreme  and  all-comp|rehending 
ideal  of  character  training  is  "A  conscious 
growth  towards  the  Divine".  What  should 
adulthood  do  to  aid  the  child  in  the  achieve- 
ment of  this  most  productive  growth? 


Training  for  power 


11 


1  As  the  child  is  created  in  the  image 
of  the  Divine,  the  supreme  ideal  of  all 
teaching  and  training  should  be  the  de- 
velopment of  this  image;  the  selfhood, 
or  individuality  of  each  child,  as  the  most 
essential  preparation  for  his  own  happiness 
and  true  character  growth,  and  to  qualify 
him  to  do  his  own  special  work  in  promot- 
ing htmian  progress. 

2    It  should,  by  providing  appropriate 
life  experiences,  gradually  develop  in  the 
hild  a  consciousness  of  the  fundamental 
law  of  unity  in  Nature,  in  humanity,  and 
in  the  universe;  and  between  himself  and 
these  elements  of  his  environment.     He 
should  especially  grow  into  a  consciousness 
of  the  greatest  unity— partnership  between 
him  and  a  universal  power  unseen  which 
he  will  ultimately  know  as  God.    This  is 
not  merely  an  ideal,  beautiful  but  not 
effective.     It  is  a  fundamental  and  uni- 
versal principle,  on  which  human  progress 
largely  depends. 

3    It  should  kindle  him  by  revealing 
to  him  by  operative  and  other  processes, 


12 


Adult  and  child 


a  vision  of  his  special  power  to  achieve 
for  humanity  in  some  department  of  pro- 
gress. Kindling  and  vision  traininjj  are 
of  great  importance  in  securing  his  own 
fullest  development,  and  in  the  promotion 
of  a  progressive  civilization. 

4  It  should  develop  his  achieving  ten- 
dency. He  reveals  this  tendency  as  soon 
as  he  can  consciously  perform  any  opera- 
tive process.  He  does  not  merely  try  to 
store  his  ideals,  he  tries  to  achieve  them. 
The  loss  of  this  tendency,  or  its  weakening 
as  a  dominant  element  in  character,  robs 
life  of  its  most  productive  growth  in  power; 
and  virtue  of  its  highest  effectiveness  in 
character. 

5  It  should  giiide  in  the  true  develop- 
ment of  his  physical,  his  intellectual,  and 
his  spiritual  powers  in  harmony. 

6  It  should  train  him  to  search  earnest- 
ly, intelligently,  and  persistently  for  knowl- 
edge, and  to  use  it  wisely  for  culture,  and 
in  qualifying  him  for  more  efficient  service. 

7  It  should  cultivate  in  him  a  produc- 
tive  love  of  music,    art,    and  literature, 


Training  for  power 


13 


that  i»e  may  be  inspired  by  the  sublime 
ideals  revealed  in  them,  in  order  to  pre- 
serve in  him  the  character  balance  neces- 
SP'y  to  his  happiness,  and  to  qualify  him 
for  higher  visions  yet  unrevealed,  so  that 
he  may  add  his  most  vital  revelations  to 
enrich  the  ideals  of  the  race. 

8  It  should  definitely  train  his  emo- 
tional powers,  so  that  they  may  become 
permanent,  propelling,  moral  battery 
powers  in  his  life.  Knowing  right,  even 
willing  right,  does  not  always  lead  men  to 
make  prompt  and  vigorous  efforts  to 
achieve  right.  Froebel  was  the  first  great 
educator  to  understand  the  importance 
of  emotional  training,  and  to  introduce 
in  a  systematic  way  plans  to  promote  it. 
Well  trained  emotional  power  preserves 
through  life  the  tendency  that  is  so  strong 
in  early  childhood;  the  tendency  to 
endeavor  promptly  to  achieve  the  best  we 
know  and  see.  This  is  man's  only  sure 
way  to  develop  higher  power  and  clearer 
vision. 

9  It  should  develop  his  natural  respect 
for  law  in  the  games  he  plays  into  conscious 


14 


Adult  and  child 


respect  for  the  laws  of  the  home,  of  the 
school,  of  the  state,  of  society,  of  his  own 
life,  and  of  God.    Law  should  be  revealed 
to  him  as  a  directive  force  that  multiplies 
his  power  and   his  efficiency,    and    not 
merely  as  a  restraining  force  wuich  inter- 
feres with  the  achievement  of  his  plans. 
Law  has,  in  the  training  of  the  past,  been 
made  to  the  child  the  bondman  of  coercion; 
it  should  be  the  free  guide  of  his  creative 
and  achieving  powers.    The  perfect  har- 
mony between  law  and  liberty,  between 
control  and  spontaneity,  between  guidance 
and  freedom,  should  be  revealed  to  him. 
What  the  Bible  calls  "The  perfect  law  of 
liberty",  should  become  to  him  the  true 
basis  of  enlightened  and  considerate  law- 
respecting  liberty.     This  attitude  t     law 
and  to  liberty  is  one  of  the  most  essential 
elements  in  vitally  moral  citizenship. 

10  It  should  not  rest  satisfied  with 
revealing  to  the  child  his  responsibility 
for  the  evil  he  does;  he  should  become 
conscious  of  his  supreme  responsibility 
for  the  achievement  of  the  good  he  has 
power  to  do. 


Tra'  ing  for  power 


15 


These  revelations  and  developments 
embrace  the  essential  elements  of  vital 
character  and  power.  They  were  all 
considered  by  Froebel,  and  definite  and 
comprehensive  plans  were  made  by  him 
for  their  natural,  organic  growth  in  the 
kindergarten,  and  for  their  continuous 
growth  throughout  life.  His  philosophy 
and  the  v.  perative  processes  in  good  kinder- 
gartens, are  worthy  of  careful  study  by 
every  man  and  every  woman  who  has  the 
responsibility  for  the  character  develop- 
ment of  even  one  child.  His  ideals  in 
regard  to  what  adulthood  should  do  in 
developing  a  child  may  be  summed  up  p,s 
follows: 

1  It  should  develop  his  selfhood  by 
operative  processes. 

2  It  should  relate  his  selfhood  to  the 
universe,  to  humanity,  and  to  God. 

3  It  should  kindle  his  selfhood  with 
high  ethical  ideals  to  qualify  him  for  wider 
and  higher  vision. 

4  It  should  make  his  selfhood  intelli- 
gent and  progressive,  by  training  all  the 


16 


Aduli  and  child 


elements  of  his  intellectual  power  through 
the  three  stages  of  receptivity,  reflection 
and  creative  achievement. 

5  It  should  enrich  his  selfhood  with 
art,  music,   and  literature. 

6  It  should  energize  his  selfhood  by 
developing  his  emotional  nature  into  a 
self-acting  battery  to  impel  him  to  the 
achievement  of  his  ideals. 

7  It  should  preserve  his  natural  re- 
spect for  law,  and  reveal  to  him  by  life 
experiences  "The  perfect  law  of  liberty", 
the  harmony  between  control  and  freedom! 

8  It  should  reveal  to  him  cleariy  and 
attractively  his  responsibility  for  achieving 
the  good  he  has  power  to  achieve. 

9  It  should  develop  his  powers  in  har- 
mony; pi  ysical,  intellectual  and  spiritual 
powers. 

10  It  should  make  him  conscious  of 
his  power,  not  of  his  weakness. 

11  It  should  preserve  his  natural  in- 
terest in  knowledge,  and  train  him  to 
search  for  more  knowledge,  and  use  it  in- 
dependently. 


i 


Chapter  II 
Developing  the  individuality  of  the  child 

Froebel's  ideals  in  regard  to  individuality 
or  selfhood  are  expressed  in  the  following 
quotations: 

"The  spirit  of  God  and  of  humanity  is 
revealed  most  purely  and  perfectly  by 
man,  if  he  unfolds  and  represents  his  own 
being  as  much  as  possible  in  accordance 
with  his  individuality." 

"It  is  the  special  destiny  and  life  work 
of  man,  as  an  intelligent  and  rational 
being,  to  become  fully,  vividly  and  clearly 
conscious  of  his  essence,  of  the  Divine 
effluence  in  him." 

"I  will  protect  childhood  that  it  may  not, 
as  in  earlier  generations,  be  pinioned  as 
in  a  straight-jacket,  in  garments  of  custom 
arid  ancient  prescription  that  have  become 
too  narrow  for  the  new  time.  I  shall  show 
the  way,  and^  I  hope,  the  means  that  every 
human  soul  may  grow  of  itself  out  of  its 
own  individuality." 

17 


18 


Adult  and  child 


"All  progress,  all  culture  is  the  result 
of  the  original  creativeness  of  the  minds 
of  every  age  which  have  been  able  to  in- 
crease the  sum  of  existing  intellectual  and 
material  wealth  by  producing  something 
new." 

All    modem    educational    development 
is  based  on  a  reverent  recognition  of  the 
value  of  the  individual  soul.    Froebel  in 
his  kindergarten    system  first  planned  a 
related  and  progressive  series  of  illuminat- 
ing experiences,  and  of  operative  processes 
in  performing  which  each  child  is  a  free, 
independent,    self-active   being;   in   order 
that  he  may  develop  his  special  department 
of  original  power,  and  thus  be  aWe  to  do 
his  most  effective  work  in  aiding  humanity 
in  its  upward  progress.    Reverence  for  the 
individual  soul,   and  the  vital  importance 
of  the  conscious  unity  of  each  soul  with  the 
soul  of  humanity,  are  two  of  Christ's  most 
vital  revelations. 

Froebel  was  the  first  to  work  out,  after 
many  years  of  study  and  thought,  a  system 
of  training  all  children  so  that  each  one  may 
become  conscious  of  his  own  power,  and 


Developing  individuality 


19 


■i 


eventually  of  his  responsibility  for  using 
this  special  individual  power,  in  doing  his 
special  work  in  aiding  the  race  to  make 
progress  toward  the  Divine. 

The  processes  of  character  training  in 
their  evolution  have  passed  through  three 
stages:  coercion,  co-operation,  and  creativ- 
ity. In  the  coercive  stage,  adulthood 
recognized  two  duties— to  stop  the  child 
from  doing  wrong,  and  to  compel  him  to 
do  ri  ,ht— right  planned  for  him  by  adult- 
hood. Mrs.  Pipchin  achieved  a  wide 
reputation  as  a  child  trainer  b:'  forcibly 
carrying  out  her  fundamental  principle— 
"To  make  children  do  everything  that 
they  did  not  like  to  do,  and  permit  them  to 
do  nothing  that  they  did  like  to  do." 

Every  form  of  coercion  is  essentially 
dwarfing  in  its  influence  on  the  develop- 
ment of  individual  freedom.  Compulsion, 
either  in  doing  or  in  not  doing,  robs  the 
child  of  both  freedom  amd  choice,  and 
complete  growth  of  individual  power  is 
not  possible  without  both  freedom  and 
choice. 


'  W..».l«' 


^T»p 


20 


Adult  and  child 


Co-operation,   the  second  step    in  the 
progressive     ideals     regarding    character 
training,  is  much   higher   than   coercion. 
It  recognizes  the  right  of  childhood  to  a 
kind  of  partnership  with  adulthood,  but 
It  IS  a  one-sided  and  only  partially  pro- 
ductive partnership.    It  gives  the  child 
the  nght  to  co-operate  with  adulthood  in 
carrying  out  the  plans  of  adulthood.     This 
may  develop  the  child's  skill,  but  it  does 
not  develop  his  power  to  plan,  or  to  achieve 
his  plans.    It  does  not  even  consider  the 
development  of  his  original  or  creative 
power. 

The  child's  individual  power  increases, 
when  he  performs  operative  processes  to 
achieve  his  own  plans.    Individual  power 
and  achieving  power  develop  truly  only 
when  the  child  makes  the  plans  and  tries 
to   achieve  them.    Sometimes  the   child 
plans  beyond  his  power  of  achievement. 
When  his  vision  is  greater  than  his  skill, 
adulthood    has    a    vital   opportunity    for 
productive  partnership  with  the  child,  by 
coming  to  his  aid  in  successfully  achieving 
his  plans. 


Developing  individuality 


21 


Creativity  is  infinitely  more  productive 
than  mere  co-operation  in  defining  and 
developing  the  child's  individuality.  It 
is,  of  course,  important  that  the  child  be 
trained  so  that  he  may  have  power  to  co- 
operate in  achieving  the  plans  of  other 
people;  but  in  achieving  plans  he  makes 
himself,  he  has  more  joy  in  planning,  more 
growth  in  achieving  power,  and  more  com- 
plete development  of  skill.  He  there- 
fore develops  a  higher  type  of  manhood 
in  originality,  in  happiness,  and  in  achiev- 
ing tendency  and  power. 

Froebel  said  "Man  is  a  creative  being— 
We  must  launch  the  chiH.  from  its  birth 
into  free  and  all-sided  use  of  its  powers." 
Miss  Susan  E.  Blow,  one  of  Froebel's 
greatest  interpreters,  said,  "Knowledge  is 
food,  but  creation  is  life."  "Creation" 
in  its  educational  sense  means  original 
planning. 

The  motive  or  planning  power  of  charac- 
ter is  even  more  important  than  achieving 
power,  and  it  should  be  trained  even  more 
definitely.  As  motive  power  is  higher 
than  operative  and  achievmg  power,  it  is 


22 


Adult  and  child 


susceptible  to  higher  training.  The  ele- 
ment of  greatest  character  value  always  de- 
velops most  rapidly,  when  the  child  is  creative 
%n  hxs  work.  The  child's  power  of  initiating 
onginal  motives  to  activity,  is  one  of  the 
most  vital  elements  of  his  selfhood  or 
individuality. 

Frocbel's  fundamental  process  in  child 
development  and  training  is  self-activity. 
Self-activity  means  the  activity  of  the 
child  in  achieving  the  plans  of  the  child. 
Other  educators  have  seen   the  value  of 
activity  in  the  training  of  operative  power. 
A  few  have  recognized  its  indirect  influence 
on  the  will  or  the  controlling  power.    Froe- 
bel  was  the  first  to  see  that  training  is  de- 
fective at  its  most  vital  point,  if  the  origi- 
nating element  of  character  is  left  unde- 
veloped.   Formerly  men  tried  to  develop 
the  power  of  self-expression  through  ex- 
pression.    Wise  men  know  now  that  this 
cannot  be  done.     It  is  equally  impossible 
to  develop  self-activity  by  activity  alone. 
Under  the  old  training  only  those  whose 
selfhood   was   strong   enough   to  recover 


Developing  individuality  23 

from  the  dwarfing  influence  of  cr  ircion, 
became  self-active  in  life. 

In  the  work  of  the  true  kindergarten 
the  child  is  not  made  a  conscious  imitator. 
Unconscious  imitation  is  natural  to  the 
child.  This  fact  is  the  basis  of  the  law  that 
demands  that  the  child  shotdd  have  good 
models  in  the  adults  with  whom  he  asso- 
ciates at  home  and  at  school;  good  models 
in  deportment,  in  language  and  in  life. 
If,  however,  he  is  trained  to  be  a  conscious 
imitator,  he  fails  to  develop  the  highest 
element  of  his  character,  the  basis  of  his 
powers  of  vision,  of  planning  and  of  achieve- 
ment. 

In  every  department  of  the  work,  in  a 
good  kindergarten,  the  child  is  trained 
to  be  independent,  self-reliant,  self-reveal- 
ing, self-active  and  self-achieving.  In  the 
paper  pasting,  for  instance,  when  under 
the  guidance  of  his  trainer  he  has  folded 
his  square  of  colored  paper  in  definite  ways, 
and  used  his  scissors  to  cut  it  as  directed, 
he  is  then  free  under  the  directive  law  of 
opposites,  .hich  has  been  revealed  to  him, 
to  create  out  of  the  resultant  square  and 


I 


mm 


^^n^n^^^^^? 


24 


Adult  and  child 


triangles  a  design  of  his  own.  He  cannot 
fail,  if  he  follows  the  law  of  hamony  of 
opposites,  to  produce  a  harmonious,  bal- 
anced "form  of  beauty". 

The  child  may  do  this  on  his  first  day 
in  the  kindergarten,  and,  when  he  does  it, 
he  has  taken  one  of  the  most  important 
steps  in  his  development.     He  has  taken 
the  first  step  in  learning  by  actual  exper- 
ience,  not  by  information  imparted  by 
some  adult,  that  he  has  power  to  be  original 
and  independent.     He  had,  when  he  made 
his  first  cut,  five  pieces  of  paper,  and  in- 
dependently guided  by  a  definite  law,  he 
has  produced  a  harmonious  design.     He 
knows  that  it  is  his  own  design.     He  learns 
soon  that  with  other  squares  cut  as  he  cut 
his  first,  he  can  make  other  patterns  no 
two  of  which  will  have  the  same  design. 
This  day  is  surely  one  of  the  epoch  days 
of  his  life. 

Freedom  and  choice  are  wrought  into 
his  character,  when  he  is  allowed  to  choose 
the  game  to  be  played,  the  song  to  be  sung, 
the  story  to  be  told,  as  he  is  allowed  to  do 
in  his  turn.     In  the  games  requiring  part- 


Developing  individuality  25 

ners  he  is  trained  to  choose  his  own  part- 
ner or  partners.  He,  of  course,  gets  his 
turn  in  being  chosen,  when  tomorrow  the 
chosen  of  today  are  the  choosers. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  child  is  not 
sufficiently   developed   to   choose   wisely. 
The  answer  is  that  the  only  way  to  develop 
his  power  of  choice,  or  any  other  power, 
is  to  use  the  power  in  regard  to  problems 
or  conditions  suitable  for  his  stage  ©f  de- 
velopment.   The  duty  of  the  adult  is  to 
reveal    fundamental  principles  gradually, 
to  guide  the  child  in  making  future  choices 
more  wisely.     Principles  for  his  guidance 
should  always  be  revealed  as  enlightenment, 
never  as  a  substitution  for  his  own  choice. 
Principles  should  qualify  for  wiser  choice, 
but  they  should  never  destroy  or  weaken 
the  power  of  choice  on  the  part  of  the  child. 
The   development  of    the  power  of  indi- 
vidual  choice   and   independent   decision 
rests  on  the  regular  exercise  of  individual 
choice  and  independent  decision. 

It  matters  comparatively  little  whether 
the  child  chooses  harmonious  colors  for 
the  mat  he  is  making,  or  for  the  picture 


'«<fW8ivis«i<wr 


26 


Adult  and  child 


he  is  to  make  tomorrow,  but  it  is  of  vital 
importance  in  his  character  training  that 
he  should  become  conscious  of  the  right  to 
choose,  and  of  the  duty  of  choice.    Artistic 
principles   should   be   revealed   gradually 
to  guide  him  to  wiser  choice,  and  to  more 
perfect  design.    This  is  true  of  all  depart- 
ments of  the  child's  transforming  work. 
In  this  way  only  can  he  become  conscious 
of  his  power  to  transform  independently, 
and  to  transform  in  harmony  with  law. 
Law  should  supplement  and  direct  indi- 
vidual power,  but  never  interfere  with  its 
development. 

The  ideal  of  absolutism  in  national  life 
naturally  led  to  absolutism  in  child  train- 
ing.   As  the  true  ideal  of  democracy  be- 
comes clearer,  men  see  more  clearly  that 
the  freedom   of  the  child  under   law,  is 
one  of  the  basic  elements  in  his  training. 
Absolutism  requires  the  subordination  of 
the  individual  to  the   nation;   democracy 
develops  a   higher  national  life   by    pro- 
ducing more    completely  developed  and 
more  free  individuals. 


Developing  individuality  27 

Every  agency  that  robs  a  child  of  his 
individuality,  and  prevents  the  free  out- 
put of  his  creative  selt-activity,  dwarfs 
or  warps  the  image  of  God  in  him.  We 
should  change  the  direction  of  the  child's 
out-flowing  selfhood  when  it  is  flowing 
in  wrong  directions  by  guiding  him  to  other 
interest  centres,  but  we  should  never  turn 
it  back  or  stop  its  current. 

When  the  child  is  doing  )^Tong,  we  should 
secure  a  change  in  his  centre  of  interest, 
and  keep  his  achieving  and  transforming 
powers  in  operation.     Even  doing  wrong 
develops  his  individual  power.     His  doing 
is  right  even  though  his  aim  or  his  plan  be 
wrong.    His  doing  is  an  effort  to  achieve 
his  plan.     It  is  the  supreme  way  to  de- 
velop his  power,  his  skill  and  his  character. 
It  is  the  only  way  yet  revealed  of  vitally 
increasing  his  power  of  vision,    and  his 
productive  individuality.     The  worst  char- 
acter destroyers  are  "The  child  quellers". 
Froebel's  ideal  was  "to  train  free,  think- 
ing, independent  men",  and  in  order  to 
achieve  this  great  aim  he  believed  "that 
training  should  rest  on  life  itself,  and  on 


m 


28 


AduH  and  child 


creative  eflforf '.  He  studied  thirty  years 
to  work  out  an  educational  system  in  which, 
mainly  by  operative  processes,  the  child 
may  be  developed  in  harmony  with  his 
philosophy,  and  he  called  it  the  kinder- 
garten. 


Chapter  III 

Revealing  the  ideal  of  unity  to  the  child 

No  other  words  meant  as  much  to  Froe- 
bel  as  "Inner  connection".  He  believed 
that  all  things  were  created  in  universal 
harmony,  and  that  growth  should  be  ever 
progressive  through  inter-dependent  and 
inter-influencing  elements. 

The  law  of  unity  or  inner  connection, 
he  regarded  as  the  philosophical  basis  of 
man's  development  socially,  nationally 
and  religiously.  It  is  the  central  ideal  of 
hope  for  man's  growth  to  a  higher  civiliza- 
tion. 

He  knew  that  no  great  fundamental 
principles  can  become  conscious,  vital,  and 
productive  elements  in  a  man's  life,  unless 
the  apperceptive  centres  of  these  principles 
are  started  to  grow  in  early  childhood. 
He  founded  the  kindergarten  really  to 
start  the  growth  of  the  centres  of  every 
department  of  the  child's  power.     In  this 

29 


30 


Adult  and  child 


way  only  can  the  roots  of  the  elements  of 
highest  human  development  be  vitalized 
m  the  hfe  of  a  child.  Unless  the  apper- 
ceptive  centres  of  power  and  of  character 
are  started  to  grow  in  the  child's  being  in 
early  hfe,  he  has  nothing  in  his  experience 
to  which  m  later  years  the  great  elements 
lat^d '^^''         "^^^"^^t^^  "^ay  be  vitally  re- 

Froebel.   therefore,   by  the  child's  ex- 
penences  in  the  kindergarten  planned  to 
relate  him  to  God  as  his  Creator  and  his 
Father;  to  growth  in  the  universe  in  Nature 
m    his    environment    of    flowers,    trees' 
streams    lakes,  hills,  and  mountains,  and 
living  things  such  as  butterflies,  birds  and 
animals;  and  to  humanity  in  the  home, 
m  the  school,  in  the  church,  and  in  its 
wider    unities    socially    an<^    industrially. 
He  did  not  hope  to  make  the  little  child 
conscious  of  unity  in  its  fullest  sense,  be- 

ZZfTi!    ^"^    ^^"^^"^^>^'    between 
himself  and  Nature,  between  himself  and 

God;  but  he  did  plan  to  start  to  grow  in 

the  life  of  each  child  the  centres  to  which 

all  these  ideals  of  unity  would  naturally 


The  ideal  of  unity 


31 


relate  themselves  in  later  years,  and  with- 
out   which    vital,    productive,    character 
developing  relatMnships.   could  never  be 
perfectly  effect  .d.     Indeed,  if  one  had  to 
express  the  ph'os.phy  of  Tie  kindergarten 
system  in  a  si;  ,;i-  ^-rtence,  the  briefest 
and  most  comprehensive  sentence  would 
be:    the  kindergarten  aims  to  develop  in 
the  life  of  every  child  apperceptive  centres 
of  the  most  essential  elements  of  power, 
skill,  and  character,  so  that  they  may  grow 
individually  and  in  unity  throughout  his 
life. 

A  tree  was  Froebel's  ideal  type  of  unity, 
in  which  the  centre  is  related  to  every 
branch,  and  twig,  and  leaf,  and  root;  in 
which  the  life  of  the  trunk  develops  the 
life  of  each  part;  and  in  which  the  fuller 
and  richer  growth  of  root,  and  le^f,  and 
twig,  and  branch,  contributes  to  the  growth 
of  the  trunk  and  of  every  other  part. 

In  the  garden  each  flower  is  shown  to 
contribute  i.s  part  in  color  and  form  to 
produce  the  beauty  of  the  whole  garden. 
Each  one  has  its  own  individual  beauty, 
and  the  lack  of  the  individual  beauty  of 


32 


Adult  and  child 


one  would  mar  the  ge'neral  eflfect  of  the 
whole.     So  in  the  woods,  the  hemlocks  and 
the  beeches,  the  pines,   and   the   maples, 
the  elms,   and   the  birches  have  special 
majesty    or   beauty   for   each   individual 
trre,  and  the  unity  of  all  produces  the 
harmonious  beauty  of  the  forest.     In  the 
landscape  the  lack  of  hill,  or  mountain,  or 
lake,  or  nver,  or  green  valley,  or  forest 
background,    would    impair    the    general 
beauty  of  the  scen,e.     Gradually  the  little 
ones  are  led  to  recognize  these  elemental 
facts,  and  ultimately  they  become  vital 
hfe  principles,  revealing  the  unity  of  life 
and  the  duty  of  each  life  to  beautify  and 
strengthen  each  other  life. 

When  children  are  older,  community 
work,  m  which  children  are  grouped  for 
united  effort  to  make  forms  of  beauty, 
or  to  construct  forms  with  blocks  or  tab- 
lets in  the  "gift"  work,  may  be  planned 
to  make  children  conscious  of  the  need  of 
each  individual's  share  in  ta-  making  of 
the  perfect  whole,  and  also  to  reveal  the 
larger  and  more  vital  thought  that  human 
work  is  complete  in  the  home,  in  society 


The  ideal  of  uvity 


33 


in  the  nation,  or  in  the  race,  only  when 
each  individual  does  his  part  truly  in  har- 
mony with  all  the  rest. 

For  instance,  in  the  first  cut  of  the  paper 
cutting  occupation    explained  in  Chaptei 
II,  the  teacher  may  place  the  square  on  the 
centre  of  a  small  table  at  which  four  child- 
ren sit,  one  on  each  side  of  the  table.     Each 
child  takes  one  of  the  four  triangles  pro- 
duced by  the  cut.     In  turn  one  of  them 
places  his  triangle  near  the  square  at  the 
side  or  at  a  corner,  and  the  one  sitting 
opposite  places  his  triangle  on  his  own  side 
directly  across  the  centre  of  the  square, 
and  in  the  same  relationship  as  the  first 
triangle  to  the  side  or  the  comer  of  the 
square.     A   third   then   repeats   with   his 
triangle  at  ■       side  or  corner  next  to  him. 
A  pause  is  lade  and  the  children  are 

asked  to  dec  .e  whether  the  form  of  beauty 
is  complete  or  not.  Having  already  learn- 
ed by  operative  experience  the  law  of  op- 
posites,  and  each  one  having  already  made 
many  "forms  of  beauty"  for  the  purpose 
of  revealing  his  own  independent  individ- 
uality to  his     -idergartner,  and  of  becom- 


m 


34 


Adult  and  child 


M  i 


ing  conscious  of  it  himself,  they  all  recognize 
that  the  form  is  incomplete,  until  the  last 
child  lays  down  his  triangle  in  a  position 
of  harmony  with  the  others. 

To  make  the  lesson  more  definite  each 
child  in  turn  may  take  his  triangle  from 
a  perfect  pattern  or  "form  of  beauty"  in 
order  to  show  that  the  omision  of  one  tri- 
angle, or  the  failure  of  one  child  to  do  his 
part  truly  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  destroys 
the  harmonious  perfection  of  the  whole- 
Blocks  and  tablets  may  be  used  in  the  same 
way,  and  thus  by  operative  processes  in 
which  each  individual  must  do  his  part  in 
harmony  with  his  fellows,  there  are  wrought 
into  the  fibre  of  the  child's  life  two  of  the 
fundamental  elements  of  human  progress, 
and   of   high,    achieving   character— first,' 
that  to  make  the  fulfilment  of  his  life  work 
completely  successful,  he  must  become  as 
perfect  as  possible  as  an  individual;  and 
second,  his  developed  individuality  must 
work  in  harmony  with  the  individuality 
of  his  fellow  men  in  order  to  promote  a 
higher  civilization. 

Thus  the  child  will  come  to  recognize 


The  ideal  of  unity 


35 


in  time,  and  to  understand,  the  essential 
unity  that  should  exist  between  the  in- 
dividual and  the  race.     True  individual- 
ism and  true  community  spirit  cannot  he 
in  opposition  to  each  other.     By  the  more 
complete   development   of  individuals    is 
produced  a  higher  community;  and  this 
higher    community    in    turn    produces    a 
higher  and  broader  race  of  individual^., 
who  naturally  produce  a  still  higher  com- 
munity.    Thus  civilization  advances  from 
generation  to  generation. 

_  By  the  "Trade  songs  and  games"  in  the 
kindergarten,  the  child  is  related  to  the 
farmer,  the  carpenter,  the  shoe-maVer,  the 
weaver,  the  blacksmith,  and  the  other 
workers  to  whom  he  is  indebted  for  the 
conditions  and  supplies  nece..ary  for  his 
life  and  comfort. 

By  the  songs  and  stories  he  is  led  to 
recognize  the  inter-relationships  neces- 
sarily existing  between  himself  and  the 
other  members  of  his  family,  between  him- 
self and  his  neighbors  in  the  community 
between  himself  and  those  whom  he  has 
power  to  help;  and  ultimately  between  his 


36 


Aduli  and  child 


life  work  and  national  life,  and  beyond 
that  to  universal  life. 

Thus  day  by  day  during  the  formative, 
symbolic  peroid  of  the  child's  life,  the  great 
law    of    unity,     inner-connection,     inter- 
relationship,    and     inter-dependence,     is 
wrought  into  the  fibre  of  his  nature  so  that 
when  older  he  may  be  able  to  recognize 
and  to  fully  understand  this  fundamental 
law,  as  It  relates  him  to  humanity,  to  the 
universe,    and   to   God.     Thus   onjy   can 
he  learn  that  duty  may  be  ever  productive 
of  joy.     No  forma'  teaching  by  parent,  or 
teacher,  or  preacher,  can  give  this  law,  or 
any  other  great  principle  vital,  revealing, 
and  productive  power. 

The  law  of   developing  life,    and   the 
process  by  which  development  may   be   ■ 
achieved,  must  be  wrought  into  life    and 
wrought  out  of  life  in  order  to  make  them 
productive  elements  in  character. 

Froebel  based  his  educational  philosophy 
on  the  law  of  inner  connection,  and  planned 
the  whole  of  the  child's  play  and  work  in 
the  kindergarten,  in  order  that  the  prin- 
ciple might  naturally  unfold  itself  to  each 


The  ideal  of  unity 


37 


child  through  life  experiences  in  all  the 
unities  described,  and  also  in  the  unity 
between  man's  physical,  intellectual,  and 
spiritual  natures;  between  the  receptive, 
reflective,  and  executive  elements  of  his 
physical  power;  between  childhood,  youth, 
and  manhood;  between  knowing,  feeling,' 
and  willing;  between  control  and  freedom; 
and  between  the  various  subjects  of  study 
in  relation  to  each  other  and  to  human 
development. 

Froebel's  deepest  philosophical  view  of 
unity  was  his  conception  that  the  evolution 
of  humanity  depends  on  a  definite  inter- 
relationship of  development  between  the 
individual  and  the  race.  He  taught  that 
each  individual  should  in  himself  represent 
the  unified  ideals  of  the  race;  that  the  in- 
dividual man  cannot  be  perfect  as  an  in- 
dividual, until  be  becomes  conscious  of  the 
perfect  type  of  the  totality  of  the  race  in 
complete  unity;  and  that  race  perfection 
will  not  be  possible  until  the  individuals 
composing   it  shall  each  be  race  inclusive. 

This  doubly  inter-related  conception  of 
community,  based  on  the  inter-stimulating 


$B 


Adult  and  child 


Znf-t  ^''t  ■"'^ividuals  composing  it, 
and  of  the  mclusive  unity  of  each  indivrdual 
«  representmg  in  himseU  th.  evolution 

unity  between  a  man  and  mankind  that 
^  eva-  been  conceived.  A  unity  com- 
S       '"''  ""^"«  ■"«"•  '^  "  ™Wime 

When  parents  and  teachers  understand 
the  law  of  unity  i„  its  comprehensive  "^ 
lat.onsh,ps  they  will  be  able  to  aid  in  its 
unfoldmg  m  the  lives  of  their  chUdren 


(:) 


Chapter  IV 

Kindling  the  child 

To  do  his  best  work,  his  real  work  in  the 
world  for  God  and  for  civilization,  a  man 
must  be  kindled  in  the  centre  of  his  special 
power.     With  a  perfect  system  of  training 
there  should  be  no  "misfits"  among  men 
and   women.     The   training   begun   in   a 
good    kmdergarten   and  continued  along 
progressive  lines  would  reduce   "misfits" 
to  a  minimum,  if  the  training  were  uni- 
versally understood  by  adults,  and  prac 
tisea  m  the  schools  and  homes  of  the  world 
Men  and   women  would  find  their  true 
spheres,  and  work  would  become  joy.  not 
labor. 

The  kindling  of  a  child  should  not  be 
left  to  chance.  Kindling  is  so  important 
that  ^  regular  systematic,  progressively 
defimte  methods,  and  progressively  un- 
folding plans  for  awakening  the  child  to 
a  stimulating  consciousness  of  his  possi- 

39 


'ir^wjvsvgisat 


40 


Adult  and  child 


biHties  of  avhievement  in  lifting  his  fellow 

sho«M  H  ^  V''"""^  "'^  ^"^  ^^^'h^r  ideals 
Should  be  begun  in  the  kindergarten  and 

conunued  by  operative  processes  adapted 

hi  tLlT  ''  '^^^'^'"^^"^  ^'^°"^^°^^ 
A   child   performs  operative  processes, 
when  m  any  way  he  makes  his  "Inner 
become  outer"  by  revealing  ideals  in  his 
mmd  by  oral  language,  by  written  lan- 
guage, by  art.  or  by  transforming  material 
thmgs  mto  new  conditions  of  beauty,  or 
of  utihty.     He  may  be  operative  in  reveal- 
ing his  own  ideals,   or  in  revealing  the 
Ideals  of  others.     Operative  processes  di- 
rectec   by  his  own  mind  in  the  expression 
ot  Y  ^s  .A  n  Ideals,  are  the  only  truly  develon- 
ing  processes  for  self  revelation,  and  for 
self-kmdlmg. 

The  earlier  the  kindling  processes  are 
used  in  the  child's  training,  the  more  effec! 
tive  they  will  ultimately  become.  Like 
the  other  departments  of  human  power 
kindling  power  should  be  a  natural  growth' 
not  merely  a  stimulant. 

The  processes  already  described  in  Chap- 


Kindling  the  child 


41 


ters   two   and   three   for   developing   the 
special  power  or  selfhood  of  each  child, 
and  for  relating  this  selfhood  to  humanity, 
to  the  universe,  and  to  God,  must  be  the 
basis   of   the   comprehensive   kindling   of 
the    child.     Individuality    must    not    be 
regarded  as  a  single,  unrelated  element  of 
power  in  the  child's  character.     Individual 
power  in  its  complete  development  is  the 
dominant    force    which    arouses,    unifies 
and  directs  all  the  elements  of  power  of 
each  individual   character.     Individuality 
IS  the  determining  tendency  of  oersonality 
It  IS  also  the  power,  or  collection  of  powers,' 
in    personality. 

The  process  of  kindling  the  child  must, 
therefore,  call  into  action  all  the  elements 
of  power  in  his  nature  in  order  to  be  reason- 
ably complete.  For  this  inclusive  awaken- 
ing Froebel  has  provided  very  fully  in 
the  kindergarten. 

Every  phase  of  power  has  specially  ap- 
pealing operative  processes  to  arouse  the 
child's  mterest,  and  to  direct  it  to  imme- 
diate, productively  constructive  activity. 
Each  child  has  dominant  tendencies,  and 


42 


Adult  and  child 


different  kinds  of  operative  work  have 
special  attractiveness  for  different  children 
in  kindling  their  creative  power.     Froe- 
bel  studied  the  range  of  human  interests 
and  of  human  worl:,  and  then  adopted  as 
many  varieties  of    materials  as  he  found 
adapted  to  the  child  stage  of  interest  and 
of  power  for  the  occupation  of  the  child 
in  the  kindergarten.    He  chose  materials 
that  are  inexpensive,  that  are  easily  ob- 
tainable, and  that  may  be  used  by  the 
children  without  injury  to  themselves,  or 
unnecessary  inconvenience  to  others.     He 
planned  work  with  each  kind  of  material 
that    requires    conscious    originality    and 
not  mere  imitation,  or  the  carrying  out 
of  the  plans  of  others."    He  planned  also 
wisely  that  each  child  may  continue  to 
make  new  and  original  plans  for  weeks 
or  even  for  months,  with  a  single  kind  of 
material.     In  this  way  the  child  reveals 
to  his  trainer,  and  gradually  to  himself, 
his  deepest  interests  and  his  highest  power,' 
and  becomes  kindled  in  his  creative  ten- 
dencies, and  in  his  special  indi\  idual  power. 
The  kindergarten  system  of  training  is 


Kindling  the  child 


43 


the  only  system  that  is  founded  on  crea- 
tivity, and  the  only  system  that  provides 
carefully  chosen  materials  to  develop  the 
natural   tendency   of   all   children   to   be 
creative.     It  is  therefore  the  only  system 
that  logically,   progressively,   and  persis- 
tently kindles  the  child  by  interests  that 
never  fail  to  keep  him  aroused  so  that  he 
earnestly  longs  to  achieve  his  plans.    The 
fact  that  he  is  free  to  make  his  own  plans 
ensures   his  interest.     Children   naturally 
tire  of  working  out  the  plans  of  others. 
They  tire  quickly  of  trying  to  carry  out 
plans  made  by  adults.     This  is  perfectly 
natural.     Few  adults  have  either  the  sym- 
pathy, the  genius,  or  the  training  to  qualify 
them  for  making  plans  for  the  work  of 
children.     This  explains  the  fundamental 
weakness  of  ordinary  school  education  in 
vital  character  training. 

There  is  most  hope  in  the  future  of  child- 
ren who  tire  most  quickly  of  working  out 
the  plans  of  adults,  and  who  resent  most 
definitely  the  interference  of  presumptuous 
adulthood  with  the  plans  made  by  the 
children  themselves.    Working  out  their 


44 


Aduli  and  child 


own  plans,  must  be  more  interesting  and 
more  kindling  to  children,  than  working 
out  the  plans  of  others,  because  it  calls 
more   and   higher  powers    into   activity. 
It  is  more  kindling,  too,  because  it  is  more 
comprehensively    developing.      To    carry 
out  a  plan  made  by  another,  develops  con- 
structive skill.     To  carry  out  a  plan  made 
by  himself,^  develops  greater  constructive 
skill,    and   in   addition   develops   creative 
power.     All    children    who    are    trained 
achievingly,  respond  most  joyously,  and 
therefore  most  productively,   when  their 
highest  powers  are  kindled. 

The  only  creative  method  of  promoting 
both  the  general  and  the  speciJ  kindling  of 
a  young  child,  is  to  let  him  plan  his  own 
work,  and  try  to  execute  his  own  plans. 
Adulthood  should  provide  the  child  with 
materials  appropriate  to  his  stage  of  de- 
velopment; it  should  unfailingly  manifest 
a  sympathetic  interest  in  the  work  he  tries 
to  do;  it  should  show  joyous  appreciation 
of  his  achievement,  judging  of  success  from 
the  child's  standpoint;  and  it  should  always 
be  ready  with  smiling  face  and  hopeful 


Kindling  the  child 


45 


K 


tone  to  render  any  assistance  necessary 
in  the  early  stages  of  development,  when 
his  plans  are  beyond  his  power  of  achieve- 
ment; when  his  insight  is  greater  than  his 
power  of  attainment. 

The   important   condition   is   that   the 
child's  powers  of  insight  and  originality 
be    kept    active.     They    are    capable    of 
unlimited    development.     The    fact    that 
they  do  not  develop  progressively  to  the 
end  of  life,  is  evidence  in  itself  of  the  failure 
of   training   and   education   in   the   past. 
The  continuous  and  related  development 
of  these  powers,  is  the  only  source  of  pro- 
gressive kindling  in  the  child,  the  youth, 
and   the  man;   the   kindling   that   grows 
more  illuminating,  as  each  new  year  comes 
with  new  and  greater  problems  and  oppor- 
tunities. 

Problem  reco|?iition  is  more  developing 
than  problem  solution.  The  power  to  see 
new  problems  is  more  joy  giving,  and  more 
productive,  than  the  power  to  solve  prob- 
lems. Most  educational  systems  have 
tried  to  develop  children  by  training  them 
to  solve  problems,  not  to  discover  them. 


i. 


I 


46 


Adult  and  child 


Again  the  lower,  the  least  developing,  and 
the  least  useful  powers  are  developed  to  the 
neglect  of  the  higher,  the  most  revealing, 
and  the  most  kindling  powers.    All  powers 
of  vision  and  of  achievement  grow  stronger, 
and  become  more  creative,  when  called  into 
productive  activity  in  seeing  new  plans  and 
m  trying  to  achieve  them.  Children  acquire 
a  limited  mechanical  aptitude  by  trying 
to  solve  problems  supplied  by  others,  but 
such  development  is  not  vital.    At  best  it 
produces  single  candje  power  from  batteries 
that  have  a  natural  capacity  for  ever  in- 
creasing illumination  intended  to  reveal 
to  each  child  the  special  splendors  of  the 
universe  which  he  has  special  power  to  see 
in  new  and  individ-.al  forms;  intended  to 
reveal,  too,  the  possibilities  of  the  re-ad- 
justment and  transformation  of  these  forms 
into  higher  forms  of  greater  productivity. 
In  every  department  of  the  kindergarten 
work,  the  kindling  of  the  child's  power 
IS  stimulated.     In  addition  to  the  general 
processes  for  developing  the  natural  kind- 
ling of  the  powers  common  to  all  children, 
the  kindergarten  also    provides    compre- 


Kindling  the  child 


47 


hensively  by  processes  of  the  deepest 
interest  to  children  for  the  kindling  and 
developing  of  special  powers  or  talents. 

Artistic  talent  is  kindled  and  developed 
by  paper   cutting  and  pasting,  by   mat 
weaving,  by  embroidery,  by  sewing  forms 
of  life  and  forms  of  beauty  in  colored  wool, 
by  drawing,  and  by  color  work  with  paints. 
Mathematical  conceptions  are  kindled  by 
using  the  "gifts",  and  they  unfold  them- 
selves in  the  mind  of  the  child  who  has 
special  mathematical  power,  as  naturally 
as  the  bud  unfolds  into  the  flower.     Con- 
structive children  are  kindled  and  develop- 
ed into  productively  creative  beings  by 
many  occupations,  and  in  this  way  special 
powers  are  started  in  a  grander  growth 
that  will  lead  to  greater  achievements  in 
technical  work,  and  may  guide  the  race 
to  higher  revelations  of  practical  value. 
The  child's  love  of  nature  is  used  in  the 
kindergarten  to  kindle  and  develop  by  the 
revelation  of  life  processes  a  deeper  recog- 
nition of  the  relationships  of  life  in  each 
form  to  all  other  life,  to  the  power  behind 


48 


Adult  and  child 


lite,  and  to  a  reverent  recognition  of  the 
value  of  life;  and  this  surely  kindles  the 
scientific  spirit  in  all  children,  which  be- 
comes a  burning  flame  in  the  lives  of  all 
those  specially  gifted  with  the  essential 
qualifications  and  tendencies  required  bv  a 
scientist. 

The  stories,  many  of  the  songs  and  of 
the  plays,  kindle  the  imaginations  of  all 
children,  especially  those  who  have  natural 
literary  talent,  and  qualify  them  for  receiv- 
ing illumination  from  the  great  revealers 
of  literature,  who  have  seen  most  clearly 
the  movement  of  the  Divine  Spirit  and 
who  have  expressed  their  vision  in  ex- 
quisite language. 

So  by  daily  life  and  work  in  the  kinder- 
garten the  vital  elements  in  the  lives  of 
the  children  are  kindled.  Each  child  re- 
ceives the  advantages  of  the  general  kind- 
Img  of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  powers 
common  to  all,  and  each  has  the  oppor- 
tunity for  the  special  kindling  of  his  highest 
individual  power.  All  are  awakened  in 
their  widest  range  of  interest  and  of  power 


i 


Kindling  the  child  49 

and  each  is  distinctively  kindled  in  his 
department  of  special  power.  Thus  all 
are  fitted  for  greater  happiness,  for  more 
comprehensive  growth,  for  more  splendid 
achievement,  and  for  more  perfect  vision 
of  new  light,  that  may  enable  humanity 
to  make  more  rapid  progress  toward  the 
Divme. 


Chapter  V 

The  development  of  the  child's  achieving 
power 

The  saddest  experience  in  connection 
with  the  development  of  humanity  under 
wrong  methods  of  training,  is  the  loss  of 
the  child's  natural  achieving  tendency. 
Every  normal  child  reveals  a  self-active, 
self-propelling,  achieving  tendency  as  soon 
as  he  can  creep.  He  has  a  vision  of  some- 
thing to  do,  and  he  promptly  attempts 
to  do  it.  The  love  of  doing  is  the  strongest 
love  of  his  nature;  the  joy  of  doing  is  his 
deepest  joy. 

In  his  childhood  he  reveals  three  domi- 
nant tendencies,  to  do,  to  do  what  he 
plans  himself,  and  to  do  in  co-operation 
with  other  children.  These  three  ten- 
dencies are  the  most  essential  elements  of 
true  character.  They  are  the  elements 
that  enable  humanity  to  make  progress 
toward  a  higher  civilization. 

50 


The  achieving  power 


51 


The  weakening  of  these  tendencies  in 
human  hves.  is  the  result  of  negative  train- 
ing.    All  good  elements  in  character  are 
positive,  and  true  training  should  be  di- 
rected to  the  development  of  the  positive 
elements.    Yet  in  the  past  this  simple  and 
manifest  proposition  has  not  been  prac- 
tised by  most  of  those  responsible  for  the 
trainmg  of  children.     The  good  elements, 
the   positive   elements,    should    be   more 
dominant  in  adulthood  than  in  childhood. 
It  IS  an  unfailing  law  that  can  not  be  too 
often  stated,  that  the  better  elements  in 
human    nature    under    proper    training, 
develop  mc .  t  rapidly.     It  is  also  profound- 
ly true  that  the  higher  elements  in  our 
moral  natures  turn  to  evil  instead  of  good 
and  degrade  us  instead  of  upHfting  us' 
when  their  development  is  interfered  with 
by  coercive  or  negative  training.     Power 
does  not  die  as  the  result  of  bad  training. 
It  becomes  evil,  when  it  is  meant  by  the 
Creator  to  be  good.     No  boy  is  bad,  till 
he  IS  made  bad  by  bad  training,  and  the 
dwarfing  of  his  best  powers  leads  to  his 
swiftest   and   deepest   degradation. 


t^ 


I 


52 


Adult  and  child 


The  training  of  the  past  has  been  almost 
universally  devoted  to  the  negative  ele- 
ments of  power  and  character.  This  is  a 
fundamental  error.  The  stopping  of  wrong 
doing  has  been  supposed  to  develop  right 
elements  of  character.  This  error  is  main- 
ly responsible  for  weakening  the  achieving 
tendency  of  the  race,  and  thus  robbing 
men  and  women  of  real  power  and  truly 
effective  character. 

Solomon  said  "Train  up  a  child  in  the 
way  he  should  GO."    Adulthood  has  at- 
tempted to  train  him  in  the  way  he  should 
"Dony  go."    The  words  still  used  in  child 
training  are  mainly  negative,  not  positive. 
Children  are  told  to  "don't"  instead  of  to 
"do",  to  "stop"  instead  of  to  "go  on", 
to  "quit"  instead  of  to  "persevere",  to  Le 
"quiet"   instead    of    to    be    "achieving" 
"Don't",  "stop",  "quit",  "be  quiet",  are 
all  power  destroying  commands. 

It  would  be  infinitely  more  productive 
of  character  power  in  the  child  to  do  wrong 
continually  than  to  become  a  "don'ter", 
a  "stopper",  or  a  "quitter".     His  wrong 


The  achieving  power 


53 


doing  at  any  rate  develops  his  habit  of 
doing,  his  power  to  do,  and  his  creatively 
constructive    and     achieving    tendencies. 
It  preserves  in  his  life  the  elemental  pro- 
ductive  and   transforming   tendencies   of 
his  nature,  so  that,  when  in  mature  life 
he  gets  a  good  ideal,  or  is  stirred  by  a  high 
emotion,  he  has  the  tendency,  the  habit 
and  the  power  to  try  to  achieve  his  ideal! 
Without  these  there  can  be  no  vital,  posi- 
tive character.     The  millions  of  men  and 
women  who  fail  even  to  try  to  do  what  they 
know  they  ought  to  do,  Tre  sufficient  to  prove 
the   character    perverting    influence   of  the 
coercive,  negative  training  of  the  past. 

The  child  should  never  lose  his  achieving 
tendency.  The  way  to  force  him  to  lose 
It,  is  to  stop  his  achieving.  The  way  to 
develop  it  and  make  it  the  dominant  ten- 
dency in  his  life,  is  to  keep  him  doing  what 
he  plans  himself,  and  thus  develop  his 
achieving  tendency  into  the  habit  of 
achieving.  The  only  way  to  make  effort 
to  achieve  a  habit,  is  to  guide  the  child 
in  the  achievement  of  his  own  plans.  Ori- 
ginality of  motives,  and  energetic  efforts 


54 


Adult  and  child 


to  achieve  them,  are   the  real  causes  of 
habits.    The  child  may  be  original  and 
energetic  m  wrong  doing,  as  well  as  in 
doing  right.     It  is  not  at  all  necessary 
however,   that  the  child  should  develop 
his  achieving  tendency  by  doing  wrong. 
The  world  around  him  is  full  of  interesting 
opportunities  to  do  good,  so  that  he  should 
like  to  do.  if  wisely  trained,  positively  not 
negatively.    If  he  is  doing  wrong  instead 
of  right,  he  is  not  to  blame.    His  trainers 
are  to  blame.    If  he  is  doing  wrong  it  is 
because  at  the  moment  wrong  is  the  most 
interesting  thing  to  him.     Whether  he  is 
trying  to  do  a  right  thing  or  a  wrong  thing 
the  thing  he  is  trying  to  do.  is  the  most 
interesting    thing    to    him.     If    anything 
else  were  more  interesting  to  him  at  the 
tmie,  it  is  clear  that  he  would  be  trmg 
do  it.     All  that  his  trainers  need  t*    ,o 
is  to  secure  the  transfer  of  his  interes'  from' 
the  wrong  he  is  doing  to  some  right  thing 
in  his  environment  which  is  adapted  to  his 
stage  of  development. 
If  the  right  brought  to  his  attention  as  a 


The  achieving  power  55 

substitute  for  the  wrong  he  has  been  doing 
IS  appropriate  to  his  present  interests,  and 
to  his  present  powers  of  achievement, 
he  will  plan  the  good  and  work  to  achieve 
It  with  as  much  energy  as  he  showed  in 
planning  and  achieving  the  wrong.  To 
doubt  this  means  that  the  influence  of 
Dmne  power  is  evil  instead  of  good  in  the 
child's  life. 

The  child  loves  to  be  constructive  better 
than  to  be  destructive,  and  to  be  produc- 
tive better  than  to  be  wasteful.  He  is 
destructive  and  wasteful  so  often,  because 
he  has  not  been  provided  with  suitable 
materials,  and  stimulated  by  sympathetic 
appreciation  of  his  efforts  to  be  construc- 
tive and  productive. 

Every  child  undwarfed  by  negative 
methods  of  training,  undiscouraged  by 
lack  of  appreciation,  and  undeterred  by 
adult  criticism,  longs  to  render  loving  ser- 
vice in  the  home.  The  desire  to  give  lov- 
ing service,  is  usually  driven  out  of  the 
child's  life  by  negative  training,  by  lack  of 
appreciation,  and  by  adult  criticism,  or 


m 


s$ 


Adult  and  child 


i 


defij  ately    i 
complement 


impGticiU  reproof.  It  shotdd  develop 
more  -  r  idly  than  any  other  element  in 
chti  tcier  because  it  was  intended  to  be 
t^e  i^i>^■l2^•\  element  in  character;  and  the 
lL|:,h  n  tht  power  the  more  rapid  and  the 
more  riM  lited  rse  the  possibilities  of  its 

devr.  'ir,r     t. 

■i  and  achieving  power  are 
uT-related.  The  one  is  the 
of  the  other.  Without 
achieving  pf)^ser  loving  service  is  but  a 
beautiful  ideal,  which  gradually  becomes 
less  stimulating,  less  productive  of  action, 
and  ultimately  loses  its  kindling  power. 
Without  the  ideal  of  loving  service,  achiev- 
ing power  becomes  an  agency  of  selfish- 
ness, and  loses  its  dynamic  energy  in  im- 
pelling humanity  to  a  higher  degree  of 
civilization.  Developed  together,  as  they 
should  be,  each  contributes  to  the  growth 
of  the  other  so  that  the  ideal  of  loving  ser- 
vice becomes  more  dominant,  and  achiev- 
ing power  becomes  more  efficient.  Thus 
both  become  effective  agencies  in  promot- 
ing human  happiness  and  character,  and  in 
contributing  to  human  progress. 


The  achieving  power 


57 


Self-control  has  meant,  and  to  a  large 
extent  still  means,  power  to  keep  away  from 
evil.     The   true   ideal    of   self-control   is, 
power  to  direct  our  energies,— physical! 
intellectual,  and  moral,  in  the  achievement 
of   good.    Responsibility,    too,    has   been 
treated    negatively.      We    have    taught 
children  their  responsibility  for  the  evil 
they  do,  and  have  failed  to  reveal  to  them 
their  vital  responsibilry  for  achieving  the 
good  they  have  power  to  do.     We  have 
dea't    with    self-consciousness    negatively 
as  a  weakness  instead  of  positively,  as  a 
central  element  in  vital  power.     There  is 
a  -consciousness  of  self-weakness  resulting 
from  a  failure  to  develop  a  consciousness 
of  self-power;  power  to  see  new  ideals  and 
power  to  achieve  them.     Both  the  power 
of  vision  and  the  power  of  achie\  cment 
develop  progressively  by  achieving  as  far 
as  possible  our  visions  of  today.     A  true 
consciousness  of  individual  power.  ...akes 
it  possible  to  have  true  consciousness  of 
responsibility,  and  these  are  ih    vi   A  forces 
that  impel  men  to  duty. 


58 


Aduli  and  child 


r-l-l. 


Goodness  has  been  regarded  as  the 
absence  of  badness.  This  is  an  incorrect 
and  misleading  view.  The  fact  that  there 
are  no  weeds  in  a  field  does  not  produce 
a  harvest  of  good  grain.  The  truth  is  that 
badness  is  lactc  of  goodness.  Goodness  is 
positive,  badness  is  negative.  The  true 
purpose  in  training  should  not  be  the  weak 
ideal  of  restraining  badness,  but  the  vital 
ideal  of  making  goodness  achievingly,  and 
transformingly  productive. 

There  are  some  who  yet  believe  that 
children  do  not  like  to  work.  There  arc 
unfortunately  some  such  children,  but 
they  are  man  made,  not  God  made.  They 
are  the  products  of  negative  training;  of 
coercion,  not  of  creativity. 

"Children  will  play  all  day  without 
getting  uired,  but  set  them  to  work  and 
they  will  be  tired  in  an  hour,"  say  unbe- 
lievers in  childhood.  If  we  treated  their 
play  as  we  treat  their  work,  they  would 
soon  tire  of  play  too.  Make  the  boy 
play  baseball  for  an  hour  before  breakfsat, 
send  him  out  again  to  play  basebrU  until 
noon,  and  drive  him  to  the  baseball  field 


The  achieving  power 


59 


to  play  all  afternoon,  and  he  will  soon  hate 
to  play  as  much  as  badly  trained  boys 
hate  to  work.  Both  play  and  work  be- 
come distasteful  through  the  improper 
intermeddling  of  adults.  Both  play  and 
work  are  effective  agencies  in  the  character 
development  of  the  child,  when  adulthood 
is  the  reverent  partner  of  the  child  in  the 
achievement  of  the  child's  own  plans. 

Boys  who  are  supplied  with  essenticil 
tools  and  with  materials  adapted  to  their 
stage  of  development,  do  not  tire  of  work- 
ing, if  they  are  allowed  to  make  their  own 
plans.  "Oh,  ye^"  say  the  unbelievers, 
"they  may  work  if  you  let  them  do  as  they 
hke."  That  is  what  they  should  do,  what 
they  must  do  to  develop  power  to  plan  and 
power  to  achieve. 

There  is  little  development  of  the  highest 
and  most  effective  kind  for  the  child  in 
achieving  the  plans  of  adulthood.  He 
naturally  gets  tired  of  working  out  the 
plans  of  others,  because  such  work  calls 
into  activity  the  less  important  elements 
of  his  power  and  character.  Interest  to 
be  productive  of  satisfactory  results  in 


60 


Adult  and  child 


11' 


developing  higher  power  of  interest,  high- 
er powers  of  achievement,  or  higher  powers 
of  character,  must  appeal  to  the  whole 
child.  In  responding  to  the  request  or 
command  of  an  adult,  a  very  small  part 
of  the  child's  real  nature,  is  called  into 
activity,  and  that  part  is  not  his  selfhood. 
When  unbelievers  in  childhood  and  in 
the  new  revelations  regarding  the  training 
of  children  through  their  own  self-activity, 
have  been  convmced  that  children  really 
do  love  to  work,  when  they  make  their 
own  plans,  they  still  raise  a  final  objection. 
"Yes,"  they  admit,  "they  will  work  on 
without  losing  interest,  but  they  will  not 
stick  to  one  kind  of  work." 

The  answer  to  this  objection  is  clear  to 
those  who  study  the  true  growth  of  child- 
hood. The  young  child  should  not  con- 
tinue long  at  one  kind  of  work.  He  is  in 
a  world  new  to  him.  One  of  the  most 
important  things  for  him  to  do,  is  to  learn 
his  relationships  to  his  environment,  and 
his  power  to  transform  conditions  in  it  in 
harmony  with  his  own  ideals.  If  he  works 
at  ten  different  kinds  of  work  in  a  day. 


m- 


The  achieving  power 


61 


he  has  grown  probably  ten  times  more, 
than  if  he  worked  all  day  at  the  same  kind 
of  work.  He  has  become  conscious  of  his 
power  to  transform  conditions  in  ten  ways, 
instead  of  in  one  way.  Working  ceases 'to 
be  productive,  when  the  child  has  lost 
interest  in  it.  Variety  in  original  planning, 
and  in  new  aims  and  efforts  to  achieve,' 
is  the  surest  interest  sustainer.  Hence 
the  child  enjoys  doing  many  things  in  a 
day. 

If  persisting  in  doing  one  kind  of  work 
would  develop  a  child  more  than  doing  ten 
kmds  of  work,  the  Creator  would  have 
made  a  child  with  an  unchanging  interest. 
He  did  not  do  so,  and  so  the  normal  child 
does  not  "stick  to  one  kind  of  work".     In 
doing  many  kinds  of  work  each  day  he  is 
becoming   acquainted    with    his   material 
•environment,  with  the  fact  that  it  is  trans- 
formable,   with    the   still   more   revealing 
fact  that  he  has  original  power  to  see  new 
ways  in  which  to  transform  it,  and  with 
the  great  practical  revelation,  that  he  has 
power  to  transform  it  in  harmony  with  his 
own  plans.     In  other  words,  he  starts  to 


62 


Adult  and  child 


i 


grow  in  his  life  the  vital  apperceiving  cen- 
tres of  vision,  and  of  the  realization  of 
vision  by  his  achieving  power. 

The  child  who  has  become  conscious 
of  his  power  to  transform  the  material 
conditions  of  his  environment  by  opera- 
tive processes  that  are  really  his  own  from 
conception  to  achievement,  will  in  mature 
life  have  visions  of  the  need  of  reforming 
the  intellectual  and  moral  conditions  of 
his  environment,  and  more  important 
still,  he  will  have  the  habit  of  reforming 
conditions  that  need  improvement. 

In  every  department  of  the  work  in  the 
kindergarten;  in  the  varied  occupations, 
pasting,  mat-weaving,  sewing,  etc.,  in  stick 
laying,  tablet  work,  peas  work,  etc.,  and  in 
using  the  "gifts",  the  child  day  after  day 
makes  original  plans  which  he  successfully 
achieves.  Many  other  advantages  result 
from  his  work,  such  as  development  of 
interest  power;  revelation  of  definite  mathe- 
matical conceptions;  and  of  their  relation- 
ships to  each  other  and  to  the  universe; 
art  ideals,  constructive  ideals,  aiid  ideals 
of  joy  in  work;  but  the  greatest  advantages 


The  achieving  power 


63 


are  those  connected  with  the  development 
of  the  natural  achieving  tendency  of  every 
normal  child. 

The  true  development  of  this  tendency 
will  make  it  the  dominant  element  in  the 
life  of  each  individual.  It  will  give  life 
real  value.  It  will  make  the  ideal  of  lov- 
ing service  vital.  It  will  reveal  creative 
work  as  the  most  productive  source  of 
happiness. 

It  will  be  worth  while  to  reveal  higher 
visions  of  truth  to  men,  when  their  training 
has  given  them  the  habit  of  trying  earnest- 
ly and  persistently  to  achieve  their  visions. 


i 


Chapter  VI 

The  harmonious  development  of  the  child's 

powers,    -physically,    intellectually, 

and  morally 

Froebel's  law  of  universal  unity  revealed 
to  him  the  comprehensive  and  illuminat- 
ing truth  that  no  department  of  any  organic 
unity  can  reach  its  full  development  unless 
every  other  department  of  the  unity  has 
also  been  fully  developed.     It  made  it  clear 
also,    that   complete   development   of  an 
organic  unity  cannot  be  attained  by  inde- 
pendent development  of  the  separate  units 
of  which  the  unity  is  composed.     The  high- 
est development  of  all  the  elements  of  an 
organic  unity,  results  from  the  development 
of  all  the  subordinate  elements  of  power 
through  the  highest  element  in  the  unity. 
Physical  training  that   is  intended   to 
develop  the  body  only,  does  not  produce 
a  perfect  body.     Even  if  a  man  could  de- 
velop a  perfect  physique  without  a  corre- 
sponding  mental   and   spiritual   develop- 
ment, he  would  be  a  very  imperfect  type  of 

64 


Physical,  intellectual,  moral  65 

man.  The  same  statement  applies  to  the 
development  of  the  intellectual  nature 
alone,  or  of  the  spiritual  nature  alone. 
Unified,  balanced,  harmonious  manhood 
IS  the  true  aim,  and  Froebel  lays  the  foun- 
dation for  such  development  in  the  kin- 
dergarten. 

The  games,  the  plays,  and  the  occupa- 
tions  of   the    kindergarten    develop    and 
correlate   the   three   departments   of   the 
child's  power.     Play  is  the  most  completely 
developing  process  of  the  child's  physical, 
intellectual  and  moral  powers.     It  is  the 
natural  work  of  the  child,   and  Froebel 
saw  in  the  naturalness  and  the  universilarity 
of  free  play  in  childhood  a  clear  indication 
of  its  necessity,  as  a  means  of  beginning 
informally  the  child's  unified  development. 
In  writing  of  Pestalozzi's  school  in  Yver- 
dun  in  which  he  was  a  teacher,  Froebel 
says,  "I  studied  the  boys'  play,  the  whole 
series  of  games  in  the  open  air,  and  learned 
to  recognize  their  mighty  power  to  awake 
and  to  strengthen  the  intelligence  and  the 
soul,  as  well  as  the  body.     In  these  games 
and  what  waL  connected  with  them  I  de- 


66 


Aduli  and  child 


tected  the  mainspring  of  the  moral  strength 
which  animated  the  pupils  and  young 
people  of  the  institution.  The  games, 
I  am  now  fervently  assured,  formed  a 
mental  bath  of  extraordinary  strengthen- 
ing power." 

"Play,"  he  says,  "is  the  highest  phase  of 
child  development — of  human  development 
at  this  period;  for  it  is  self-active  represen- 
tation of  the  inner,  from  inner  necessity 
and  impulse." 

"The  plays  of  childhood  are  the  ger- 
minal leaves  of  all  later  life." 

"It  is  the  sense  of  sure  and  reliable  power, 
the  sense  of  its  increase  both  as  an  indi- 
vidual and  as  a  member  of  the  group,  that 
fills  the  boy  with  all  pervading,  jubilant 
joy  during  the  games.  It  is  by  no  means 
the  physical  power  alone  that  is  fed  and 
strengthened  in  these  games;  intellectual 
and  moral  power,  too,  is  definitely  and 
steadily  gained  and  brought  under  control." 

Over  stimulation  of  the  intellect  at  the 
expense  of  the  body,  is  now  universally 
recognized  as  an  evil,  which  always  weak- 
ens physical   power,   and  thus  ter'^s  to 


Physical,  intellectual,  moral         67 

destroy  the  harmony  that  should  exist  be- 
tween the  physical  and  the  intellectual  pow- 
er of  each  individual.  It  sometimes  results 
in  the  untimely  death  of  the  student. 

The  evil  effects  of  the  failure  to  observe 
the  law  of  unity  in  the  development  of 
physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  power 
in  childhood,  would  reveal  themselves  more 
clearly,  if  the  children  had  not  many  op- 
portunities for  natural  unified  development 
ill  their  free  play  out  of  doors.  These 
evil  effects  are  much  more  clearly  seen  in 
the  cities,  where,  until  recently,  children 
have  not  had  satisfactory  opportunities 
for  free  play. 

The  kindergarten  is  much  more  essen- 
tial in  cities  and  towns  than  in  rural  dis- 
tricts to  provide  opportunities  for  opera- 
tive work,  for  creative  work,  for  relating 
the  child  to  Nature  through  its  growth 
processes  and  for  unified  development  of 
the  child's  power,  physically,  intellectually, 
and  spiritually. 

Children  who  are  brought  up  in  the  coun- 
try usually  have  several  advantages  over 
those  who  are  brought  up  in  the  cities, 


68 


Adult  and  child 


fcv 


or  in  the  towns.    They  have  much  better 
opportunities  for  free  play  out  of  doors; 
they  are  allowed  much  greater  freedom 
in  making  gardens  of  their  own,  and  of  thus 
becoming  vitally  acquainted  with  Nature 
through  her  growth  processes;  they  have 
unlimited  opportunities  to  plan  new  things, 
and  to  try  to  achieve  them;  and  they  have 
more  opportunities   for  rendering  loving 
service  in  the  performance  of  daily  duties 
by  sharing  the  responsibilities  of  the  family 
in  various  departments  of  the  work  of  the 
home,  the  garden,  and  the  farm— especial- 
ly in  the  care  of  poultry'  and  live  stock. 
Froebel  provided  the  same  types  of  three- 
fold culture  in  the  kindergarten  by  his 
system  of  plays  and  games;  by  real  gar- 
dening, where  possible,  and  by  planting 
seeds  in  boxes,  where  no  ground  can  be  se- 
cured for  gardens;  by  operative  processes 
requiring  creative  planning,  and  transform- 
ing manual  work;   and   by   kindling  the 
desire  to  perform  loving  service  by  wisely 
chosen  stories,  and  by  training  the  children 
to  make  gifts  for  mother,   father,   baby, 
grandma,  grandpa,  and  other  relatives  or 


Physical,  intellectual,  moral         69 


friends.  Every  article  made  by  a  child 
in  the  kindergarten  is  designed  as  a  gift 
for  some  lovea  one,  or  some  needy  one. 
The  joy  of  the  child  in  the  kindergarten 
at  Christmas  time,  results  from  giving 
presents,  not  receiving  them.  The  kin- 
dergarten Christmas  tree  is  covered  with 
gifts  made  by  the  children  themselves  for 
their  parents,  or  their  brothers,  and  sisters. 
They  are  thus  trained  to  become  producers 
of  happiness,  to  render  loving  service  to 
others,  and  to  recognize  their  responsibility 
for  the  good  they  have  power  to  achieve. 

Those  who  have  seen  the  little  ones 
presenting  their  gifts  to  their  parents  or 
to  other  members  of  their  family— gifts 
made  by  themselves— know  that  to  child- 
hood at  least  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than 
to  receive.  The  blessed  Christmas  time 
is  too  often  made  a  time  when  the  milk  of 
youthful  generosity  is  soured  so  that  it 
becomes  adult  selfishness. 

The  quotations  in  this  chapter  from  the 
writings  of  Froebel  prove  that  he  planned 
consciously  to  develop  body,  mind,  and 
spirit  in  unity  by  the  same  processes  and 


Aia 


70 


Adult  and  child 


at  the  same  time  in  the  plays,  games,  and 
occupations  of  the  kindergarten.  Expe- 
rience  has  shown  that,  even  to  adults,, 
strength  of  body,  strength  of  mind,  and 
true  spiritual  growth,  come  with  most 
productive  power,  when  they  are  developed 
at  the  same  time,  and  by  the  same  opera- 
tive processes.  The  essential  element  in 
securing  development,  is  the  vital  interest 
taken  in  the  operative  processes. 

The  growth  in  each  of  the  three  depart- 
ments of  power  that  result  from  any  effort,, 
depends  more  on  the  interest  that  stimu- 
lates effort  than  on  the  amount  of  physical 
energy  put  forth.  Creativity  in  this,  as 
in  all  other  departments  of  productive 
activity,  is  more  developing  than  co-opera- 
tion in  achieving  the  plans  of  others,  be- 
cause it  arouses  vital  interest. 

One  of  the  many  reasons  why  play  is 
so  comprehensively  developing  to  the 
child's  whole  being,  is  that  when  playing 
he  is  an  original,  independent  individual 
seeing  new  conditions,  making  new  plans 
to  meet  the  new  conditions,  and  immediate- 
ly trying  to  execute  his  plans. 


Chapter  VII 

Storing  the  child's  mind  with  knowledge 

For  many  years  the  communication  of 
knowledge  was  the  supreme  aim  of  edu- 
cation.   Until   recently   educational   sys- 
tems   were     based     on    the    half   truth 
"Knowledge  is  power".     No  educational 
system  based  on  this  IdtDl  can   train  a 
rapidly  developing  and  pro^^ressive  race. 
Knowledge  does  not  become   power  till 
it  becomes  a  vital  part  of  the  selfliood. 
Storing  knowledge  in  the  memory  does  not 
make  it  vital.     Knowledge  becomes  vital 
power  only  when  it  is  organized  as  a  part 
of  the  child's  enriched  individuality.    The 
child  is  infinitely  greater  than  knowledge, 
and  all   educational   systems   must   ulti- 
mately be  based  on  a  reverent  recognition 
of  the  value  of  the  child  and  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  his  growth.    When  this  is  done, 
the   child's    power,    skill,    and   character 
will  be  developed  much  more  rapidly  than 

71 


72 


Adult  and  child 


in  the  past,  and  knowledge  will  have  more 
vital  power  than  it  could  have  otherwise. 
Five  men— Locke,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi, 
Herbart  and  Froebel  brought  child  devel- 
opment into  prominence.     They  may  be 
divided  into  two  classes.     Locke  and  Her- 
bart believed  they  could  mould  the  char- 
acter of  a  child  as  they  wished,  in  accor- 
dance with  the  nature  of  the  knowledge 
they   communicated   to   him.    Rousseau, 
Pestalozzi    and     Froebel     taught     that 
character  development  is  a  growth,  not 
a  process  of  moulding,  and  that  knowledge 
really   becomes   a   vitally   productive   or 
transforming  power  only  when  it  is  used 
in   the   achievement   of  definite  creative 
purposes.     Knowledge   indeed   never   be- 
comes clear  until  it  has  been  wrought  in, 
assimilated,    and    wrought    out    in    the 
achievement      of     original     plans.      The 
achievement    of    original    plans     defines 
knowledge  and  permanently  fixes  it  as  an 
element  of  power  in  the  life  of  the  child. 
Knowledge  should  become  an  element— 
a    vital     element  — in   the    creative    life 
of  each  child,  but  this  result    .annot  be 


Storing  with  knowledge  73 

are'*S^/°  -T  ^'  '^"'^^'0'"^  systems 
are  based  mainly  on  the  considerations  of 
systems  and  methods  of  communicating 
knowledge  This  desirable  result  will  d 
achieved  when  the  supreme  study  of  edu! 
cafon^  leaders  is  directed  to  the  deveC- 

that  should  be  communicated  to  him. 
Takmg  Herbart  and  Froebel  as  repre- 
sentmg  two  clearly  defined  modem  idelL 
of  tra.mng,  we  may  see  more  perfectly 
the   difference   between   the   two   ideals 

foil"'"'  "^""^  "■■'^^'^^^  '"e  trit' 
cnild  the  transforming  agency 

eh«H?  "^^"^  *""*  ^'°«''^'  ='»died  the 
^d.n  order  to  plan  an  educational  sys- 
tern  that  would  develop  a  higher  type  of 
character,  and  enable  each  individual  to 
work  out  his  highest  destiny.  Both  made 
the  development  of  moral  character  the 
supreme  aim  of  education.  But  ther 
fur^amental    ideals    were    radically    Z 

thS'couW  TT  "]'  *'"  '°  fi"''  "•=  best 
that  could  be  done  for  him  by  adulthood; 


74 


Adult  and  child 


# 


Froebel  studied  the  child  to  discover 
his  own  natural  powers  and  growth  pro- 
cesses, so  that  he  might  be  able  to  help 
him  in  working  out  his  own  development. 

Herbart  magnified  and  dignified  the 
work  of  the  teacher  and  the  parent. 

Froebel,  while  recognizing  fully  the 
importance  of  the  teacher  and  the  parent, 
reverenced  the  child's  selfhood,  and  reveal- 
ed the  vital  importance  of  the  child  him- 
self, as  the  chief  agent  in  his  development. 

Herbart  limited  the  original  capacity 
of  the  soul  of  the  child  to  one  power — that 
of  "entering  into  relations  with  the  ex- 
ternal world".  He  believed  that  the 
teacher  could  make  the  child's  soul  accord- 
ing to  his  plan,  and  that  the  character 
of  the  soul  may  be  decided  by  the  kinds 
of  knowledge  used  in  its  making. 

Froebel  believed  that  the  soul  of  the 
child  transformed  knowledge,  not  that 
knowledge  formed  and  transformed  the 
soul.  He  regarded  the  soul  as  an  element 
of  divinity  that  must  develop  in  power, 
and  that  reaches  its  best  development 
by  its   own   creative   self-activity. 


Storing  with  tnowkdge 


75 

act""'"*  ""'^  "■'  ^^  «>«  -^ult  o£ 
Froebel  made  action  the  result  of  will 
Herbart  aimed  to  develop  i„  his  pupils 

ix^rr  '°"°''"'"'™  ^"^ """« "«': 

Froebel's  ideal  was  co-operative    pro- 
ductive, creative  self^twily  "^ 
^Herbart  :.ade  instruction  the  bas.s  of 

Froebel  made  moral  development  depend 
tions,  and  the  culture  of  the  achievins 

true  Imng;  not  mformation,  or  instruction 
Herbart  stored  the  mind  with  knowledge. 
Froebel  trained  the  child  to  use  knowl- 
edge as  he  gained  it  in  achieving  orijn", 
iJans  He  awakened  new  ideals  in  the 
ch  Id  s  mmd,  and  developed  his  emotional 
battery  power  to  propel  him  to  achieve 
ment  of  his  new  ideals. 

The  child  is  greater  than  knowledge 
Every  progressive  step  in  modem  edufa^ 
tion  .s  based  on  the  increasing  reverend 


f 


;rll 


76 


Adult  and  child 


^hr 


'    '  P*" 


of  humanity  for  the  individuality  or  self- 
hood of  the  child. 

Notwithstanding  this  fact,  knowledge 
is  of  great  importance  in  the  child's  educa- 
tion, and  in  his  future  life  and  progress. 
So  long  as  knowledge  is  treated  as  the 
secondary  aim  in  education  and  the  devel- 
opment of  power,  skill,  and  character  as 
the  primary  aim,  there  is  little  danger. 
So  long  as  knowledge  is  made  the  primary 
aim,  educational  systems  cannot  achieve 
the  best  results  either  in  communicating 
knowledge,  or  in  developing  power,  skill, 
and  character. 

Thoughtful  minds  have  long  noted  that 
a  child  has  acquired  a  wide  range  of  knowl- 
edge limited  only  by  the  extent  of  his 
experiences,  when  he  is  two  years  old. 
He  has  learned  to  speak  a  new  language, 
and  to  speak  it  well  or  incorrectly  according 
to  the  way  it  is  spoken  at  home.  He 
learns  correct  pronunciation  as  easily  as 
incorrect.  He  learns  to  speak  grammati- 
cally quite  as  easily  as  ungrammatically. 
He  knows  the  name  and  the  use  of  every 
article  in  the  home  that  he  has  ever  heard 


Storing  with  knowledge  77 

named  as  it  was  used.  He  has  intimate 
and  reliable  knowledge  about  many  things 
m  his  environment. 

He  never  learns  after  he  goes  to  school, 
as  rapidly  as  he  did  before  he  went  to  school. 
Froebel  knew  that  this  should  not  be  so 
He  beheved  that  children  would  continue 
to  acquire  knowledge  and  relate  it  to  other 
know  edge  as  rapidly  and  as  definitely  in 
school,  as  before  they  went  to  school,  if 
school  conditions  and  methods  were  adapt- 
ed to  the  child's  nature  and  to  the  laws 
of  his  growth. 

Froebel  knew  that  no  rational  mother 
ever  taught  her  little  child  the  names  and 
uses  of  spoons,  knives,  forks,  cups,  chairs 
or  other  articles.  Outside  of  school  no  one 
was  ever  unwise  enough  to  do  such  teach- 
ing. The  knowledge  gained  by  the  child 
before  he  went  to  school  was  the  incidental 
result  of  his  activities  and  his  expenences, 
not  the  result  of  direct  teaching. 

Froebel's  kindergarten  system  and  work 
beyond  the  kindergarten   was  planned  to 
continue  during  the  life  of  the  young  child 
the  growth  and    knowledge-galning  pro- 


78 


Adult  and  child 


cesses  that  were  so  vitally  developing 
before  he  went  to  school.  He  preserved 
and  developed  the  child's  vital  interest  in 
life  by  his  experiences  in  the  kindergarten; 
he  provided  for  growth  in  power  and  in- 
crease in  knowledge  by  the  child's  self- 
activity;  and  he  made  the  child  conscious 
of  the  value  of  knowledge,  of  fact,  and  of 
law  by  training  him  to  use  both  old  and 
new  knowledge  in  planning,  and  to  use 
both  old  and  new  laws  in  achieving  his 
new  plans. 

In  this  way  he  continued  in  the  kinder- 
garten in  accordance  with  clearly  defined 
and  logically  related,  progressive  plans, 
to  reveal  new  knowledge  and  new  laws, 
and  to  make  the  knowledge  and  the  laws 
real  elements  in  the  child's  life,  and  not 
merely  facts  and  principles  stored  in  his 
memory.  He  retained  the  same  vital 
laws  of  child  growth  that  revealed  and 
fixed  knowledge  and  law  in  the  child's 
life  in  the  early  stages  of  his  development 
in  knowledge  and  power;  through  essential, 
evolutionary  self-activity  in  learning  the 
most  important  knowledge  and  laws  by 


Storing  with  knowledge  79 

applying  them,  as  he  had  done  in  his  free 
hfe  before  he  went  to  the  kindergarten. 
He  did  not  leave  the  child's  progressive 
development  to  chance.  Neither  did  he 
rob  the  child  of  freedom  or  of  self-activity. 
He  guided  him  m  the  free  use  of  choice 
and  real  self-activity  under  law  to  develop 
in   his   consciousness   the   most   essential 

inT.    .i    u  ^''\  ''^^'^  '^^  *°  hi^  powers 
and  to  the  knowledge  necessary  in  applying 

them,  and  thus  make  them  vital,  organic 
elements  in  his  character. 

Even  if  the  sole  aim  of  the  teacher  were 
to    communicate    knowledge,    the    surest 
way  to  reveal  it,  and  the  most  certain  way 
to  help  the  child  to  retain  it.  is  to  train 
him  to  dig  for  it  himself,  and  to  use  it 
when  he  gets  it.     Every  new  lesson  should 
consist  of  two  parts,  the  revelation  of  new 
truths  and  new  principles,  and  their  ap- 
Phcation    when    understood.    Revelation 
IS  important;  application  is  still  more  im- 
portant. 

The  introduction  of  the  kindergarten 
has  revolutionized  the  methods  of  teaching 
from  the  primary  classes  to  the  universities 


80 


Adult  and  child 


The  science  teacher  or  lecturer,  until  fifty 
years  ago,  was  satisfied  with  stating  facts 
and  explaining  principles.  Occasionally 
he  illustrated  them  with  diagrams  on  the 
blackboard.  Often  there  were  no  black- 
boards on  which  to  make  the  illustrations. 
The  students  were  expected  to  write  the 
facts  or  laws  in  their  note  books,  or  to 
memorize  them  from  text  books  in  order 
to  be  able  to  pass  the  examinations.  In 
after  years  both  facts  and  laws  were  gen- 
erally forgotten. 

It  was  quite  natural  that  most  students 
should  forget  them,  because  there  was  no 
vital  reason  for  remembering  them,  except 
in  the  case  of  teachers  who  were  to  blight 
other  minds  by  the  same  unnatural  meth- 
ods. A  much  higher  stage  was  reached  when 
the  teacher  or  professor  performed  experi- 
ments and  the  pupils  recorded  the  results  in 
note  books.    This  however,  showed  but  a 
partial  comprehension  of  the  laws  of  growth 
that   Froebel   used   in   the   kindergarten. 
Finally  in  all  schools  and  universities  that 
make  any  claim  to  use  modem  methods, 
laboratories  are  fitted  up  in  order  that 


Storing  with  knowledge  81 

every  pupil  or  student  may  perform  for 
himself  the  experiments  by  which  known 
facts  and  laws  may  be  tested,  and  by  which 
stil  unknown  facts  and  laws  may  be  re- 
vealed. 

Dr.  William  T.  Harris,  the  greatest  edu- 
cational philosopher  of  his  time,  said  that 
Mathematics-especially  geometry-  un- 
folded  naturally  in  the  minds  of  children 

ofT  V?  ^  ^""f  kindergarten  by  the  use 
of  the  gifts  .  In  similar  ways  the  methods 
of  teaching  all  subjects  have  been  improved 
so  that  the  child  in  school  continues  to  be 
self-active,  and  is  trained  to  be  self-direc- 
tive He  13  trained  to  dig  for  the  gold  in 
books  instead  of  to  memorize  their  contents. 
He  IS  trained  to  use  knowledge  creatively 
instead  of  reproductively. 

As  a  result  of  knowledge-cramming 
for  examinations  which  destroyed  the 
natural  taste  for  reading,  a  very  smaU 
percentage  of  men  and  women  read  on 
through  life  the  books  that  are  the  store- 
houses  of  the  illuminating  experiences 
and  revelations  of  the  past;  that  contain 


f^ 


82 


Adult  and  child 


the  wisdom  and  the  vision  of  the  world's 
leaders. 

The  methods  of  the  kindergarten,  when 
they  are  understood  and  practised  in  the 
schools  and  homes  of  the  world,  will  give 
the  men  an*^!  women  of  the  future  more 
vital  reverence  foi  knowledge,  clearer 
remembrance  of  the  knowledge  they  have 
acquired,  more  ready  response  of  memory 
with  knowledge  required  unexpectedly  for 
immediate  use  in  emergencies,  and  more 
power  to  use  the  knowledge  they  have 
in  gaining  more  knowledge.  They  will 
also  create  a  hunger  interest  for  more 
knowledge  to  guide  them  in  their  pro- 
gressively higher  work  for  themselv.s  and 
for  their  fellowmen. 


Chapter  Vri 

Hou'  to  develop  balanced  character,  to  kindle 

higher  ideals,  and  to  guide  to 

higher  vision 

In  true  growth  it  is  necessary  not  only  to 
preserve  the  essential  balance  between  the 
physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  powers, 
but  to  preserve  also  proper  balance  in  the 
elements  of  these  departments  of  human 
power.     Physical  exercise  may  be  given  to 
develop  the  organs  of  the  body,  to  give 
erectness  of  pose,  to  strengthen  the  muscles, 
to  promote  grace  and  dignity  in  action,  to 
keep  the  nervous  system  in  proper  tone,  or 
to  tram  the  whole  body  to  respond  quickly 
and  definitely    .the  mind.    Perfect  training 
physically  will  neither  neglect  nor  overdo 
the  training  of  any  department  of  physical 
power,  or  skill,  or  grace,  or  dignity,  or  ef- 
ficiency. 

Physical  health  means  harmonious  phys- 
ical developmen.  in  every  department  of 
the  physical  being.     It  is  equally  true  that 

83 


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84 


Adult  and  child 


intellectually  and  morally  each  intellectual 
and  moral  element  must  reach  its  best  de- 
velopment in  order  to  attain  the  highest, 
the  most  complete,  and  the  most  self-active 
intellectual  and  moral  efficiency.     Man's 
powers  in  their  development  illustrate  per- 
fectly  Froebels'   fundamental   law  of  or- 
ganic unity;  the  more  perfect  the  develop- 
ment of  each  individual  power,  physical, 
intellectual,  and  spiritual,  the  more  perfect 
the  development  of  the  whole  being;  and 
the  more  complete  the  development  of  the 
being  as  an  organic  unity,  the  greater  be- 
come the  possibilities  of  the  development 
of  each  individual  power. 

A  crank  is  a  person  whose  powers  are 
not  properly  related  and  balanced.  Lack  of 
balance  may  result  from  over  development 
of  some  department  of  power,  or  from  neg- 
lect to  develop  other  departments  v.f  pow- 
er.    Education   should    promote  harmony 
between  the  elements  of  a  child's  power. 
Until  recently  education  tended  to  produce 
greater  lack  of  harmony  by  devoting  atten- 
tion almost  exclusively  to  the  intellect  and 
neglecting  the  other  departments  of  power. 


Character,  ideals,  vision 


85 


Even  the  intellectual  development  of 
schcols  and  universities  has  been  directed 
mainly  to  the  lower  intellectual  powers, 
the  powers  of  receptivity,  of  memory,  and 
of  reflection.  Modern  education  based  on 
Froebel's  ideals  does  not  undervalue  any 
intellectual  power,  but  it  teaches  that  the 
subordinate  intellectual  powers  can  reach 
their  highest  development,  only  when 
they  are  developed  in  relation  to,  and 
in  harmony  with  the  higher  intellectual 
powers  of  achievement,  of  imagination, 
and  of  vision.  It  plans  to  develop  the 
highest  elements  of  intellectual  and  moral 
efficiency,  to  make  more  thoroughly  bal- 
anced men  and  women,  to  add  to  their  joy 
giving  power,  to  give  culture  to  their  es- 
thetic power,  to  increase  their  achieving 
power,  and  to  qualify  them  for  higher  and 
clearer  vision. 

Utilitarian  ideals  have  restricted  educa- 
tional effort.  Modem  education  however 
recognizes  the  vital  importance  of  a  more 
comprehensive  training  in  the  art  of  making 
a  living  by  the  development  of  the  creative, 
the  constructive,  and  the  productive  pow- 


sv^ 


11 


86 


Adtdt  and  child 


ers.    The   development   of  these   powers 
promotes  the  development  of  all  the  powers 
of  eajh  child,  especially  of  his  special  indi- 
vidual power.     It  is  right  that  the  child 
should  be  trained  to  value  wealth  truly. 
He  should  know  that  it  may  be  an  agency 
for  good.     He  should  learn  also  that  wealth 
may  bring  evil  instead  of  good;  sorrow  in- 
stead of  joy.     Unless  the  child's  higher 
mtellectual  powers  and  moral  powers  are 
developed,  material  conditions  are  almost 
certam  to  engross  his  attention  through- 
out his  life,  to  prevent  the  recognition  of 
real  glories  available  for  him,  ar^  to  rob 
him  of  the  joy  of  helpful,  hopefui,  sympa- 
thetic  co-operation    with    his   fellovvTnen. 
The  wealthiest  men  are  those  who  see  di- 
amonds in  the  dew  drops,  and  gold  in  the 
after-glow.     The   men   and    women    who 
most  clearly  understand  the  value  of  ma- 
terial things  are  those  whose  higher  intellec- 
tual and  spiritual  powers  have  been  devel- 
oped most  perfectly. 

The  higher  the  intellectual  power,  the 
more  useful  are  its  life  values,  and  the 
greater  the  possibilities  of  its  growth.     The 


t 


Character,  ideals,  vision 


87 


greater  also  are  its  advantages  in  develop- 
ing and  harmonizing  all  subordinate  powers. 
The  development  of  the  imagination,  for 
instance,  is  much  more  essential  to  the  com- 
prehension of  mathematics,  than  the  study 
of  mathematics  is  to  the  development  of 
the  imagination. 

Art  should  be  taught  in  all  schools  and 
to  all  children  to  qualify  them  for  a  better 
understanding  of  the  great  ideals  revealed 
in  the  past  in  painting,  sculpture,  and  ar- 
chitecture; to  give  power  to  conceive  new 
and  higher  ideals  of  beauty;  to  improve 
and  e'evatf^  the  taste  in  home  making  and 
decorat"on;  aiid  to  qualify  for  greater  suc- 
cess in  most  of  the  departments  of  indus- 
trial life. 

Music  should  be  taught  '  ^  kindle  ele- 
ments of  power,  and  joy,  and  spiritual 
growth ;  to  qualify  for  receiving  inspiration 
and  uplift  from  a  more  perfect  appreciation 
of  the  revelations  of  the  great  composers; 
and  to  enrich  individual  and  fcmilv  life  by 
interpretation  of  good  music.  A  know- 
ledgf  *  music  may  have  many  practical 
advantages,  too. 


f?-|! 


im 


88 


Adult  and  child 


I 


p|.: 


Most  of  the  teaching  of  literature  in  the 
past  was  largely  devoted  to  the  study  of 
the  meaning  of  the  words  used,  and  to 
analysis  of  the  sentences  in  the  study  of  the 
selections  chosen.  The  result  of  such 
teaching  v;as  that  a  very  small  percentage 
of  adults  continued  to  read  good  literature 
with  a  view  of  getting  from  it  a  wider  out- 
look on  life,  higher  ideals  of  the  growth  of 
humanity  towards  the  Divine,  clearer  vis- 
ions of  duty,  and  more  sublime  revelations 
regarding  the  universe  and  man's  relation- 
ships to  it.  The  wisdom  of  the  sages  and 
the  glorious  visions  of  the  poetic  spirits 
who  had  come  most  perfectly  into  harmony 
with  the  Divine  Spirit  through  the  progres- 
sive centuries,  were  made  mainly  "A  study 
of  words  and  grammar".  The  vision  was 
lost  in  the  study  of  th.,  orm  in  which  it 
was  expressed. 

Froebel  revealed  the  better  way  of  using 
art,  music,  and  literature,  as  a  means  of 
developing  and  kindling  the  supreme  ele- 
ments of  human  power  and  character. 

The  most  vital  revelations  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  humanity  are  not  contained  in  his- 


Character,  ideals,  vision 


89 


tory.  They  are  the  revelations  in  great 
art,  in  great  music,  and  in  ^reat  literature. 
In  these  we  find  the  records  of  the  prophet 
souls  who  found  the  crests  of  the  hills  of 
progress,  who  have  climbed  to  the  summits 
of  higher  hills,  and  who  have  been  the  her- 
alds in  humanity's  epoch  movements  to- 
ward a  higher  civilization. 

As  educational  leaders  have  learned  the 
philosophy   on   which   Froebel   based   his 
work  in  the  kindergarten,  the  teaching  of 
art,  music,  and  literature  has  become  more 
vital.     Art  is  now  recognized  as  a  means 
of   revealing    originality   and    of   making 
greater  men  and  women  with  power  to 
produce    higher    conditions    of    life,    not 
merely  of  making  great  pictures.     Music  is 
taught,  not  as  an  accomplishment,  but  as 
a  life-transforming  agency.     Literature  is 
regarded  as  the  great  storehouse  in  which 
have  been  recorded  the  progressively  more 
splendid  visions  of  humanity  consciously 
growing  towards  the  Divine.     Good  teach- 
ers   no   longer   make    the    literature   les- 
son a  formal  statement  of  the  best  avail- 
able interpretations  of  the  meaning  of  iY.-- 


90 


Adult  and  child 


author,  but  a  training  of  the  student  so  that 
each  one  may  interpret  for  himself. 

To  tell  a  child  or  a  man  what  some  one 
else  has  learned  from  a  great  poem  is  not 
a  vitally  educative  process.  Each  child 
should  be  trained  to  be  his  own  interpreter. 
Each  should  decide  independently  which  is 
the  greatest  thought  in  the  poem,  or  the 
most  exquisitely  constructed  stanza;  and 
he  should  be  trained  to  state  to  his  teacher 
and  to  his  fellow  students  his  reason  for 
choosing  the  thought  or  the  stanza. 

Each  student  should  get  from  a  picture, 
song,  or  poem  the  elements  of  uplift  and 
powe.  adapted  to  his  own  individual  nature, 
and  to  his  own  stage  of  development. 
When  teachers  aim  to  secure  this  result 
by  methods  which  do  not  regard  the  pupils 
merely  as  vessels  into  which  may  be  poured 
the  most  advanced  interpretations  of  the 
most  learned  scholars,  but  as  independent 
interpreters,  they  are  doing  really  vital 
work.  Progress  by  this  method  may  ap- 
pear to  be  slow  at  first,  but  each  step  gives 
greater  pow^r  to  see  independently,  and 
therefore  gives  greater  faith. 


Character,  ideals,  vision 


91 


To  see  is  greater  than  to  know.  Vision 
IS  of  more  value  than  learning,  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  persistent  joy  in  searching  for '  nith 
—the  enlarging  truth  of  advancing  civiliza- 
tion—and as  a  qualification  for  finding  the 
special  truth  and  thought  needed  at  each 
stage  of  the  indivdual  soul's  development 
to  stimulate  it  to  a  higher  degree  or  a  wider 
range  of  vision. 

No  adult  interpreter  can  truly  and  ef- 
fectively interpret  great  literature  for  a 
child  or  for  a  youth.  The  more  advanced 
the  interpreter,  the  higher  his  power,  and 
the  more  profound  his  learning,  the  less 
vital  and  stimulating  his  interpretation  is 
likely  to  be  to  an  immature  student. 

When  through  childhood  and  youth  an 
indi,.  '  -s  trained  to  use  the  vision  he 
ha?  ,.  filing  for  the  beauty  and  glory 
in  t    -  ,gs  of  the  leaders  who  have  had 

the  }iit,xiost  and  truest  world  vision  in  re- 
gard to  God,  and  humanity,  and  gro\vth, 
and  duty:  when  in  each  succeeding  year  he 
has  read  over  again  his  favorite  poems  or 
his  most  kindling  prose,  and  has  found  each 
year  new  visions  of  thought  and  of  beauty 


92 


Adulf  and  child 


in  them  that  he  never  saw  before,  adapted 
to  his  higher  stage  of  development;  then  he 
is  ready  to  study  the  interpretations  of 
others  without  dwarfing  his  own  vision 
power. 

Froebel  used  the  child's  love  of  nature  as 
a  means  of  fixing  in  his  life  the  apperceptivo 
centres  of  a  wider  vision  power  that  should 
in  later  life  relate  him  to  the  universe  and 
to  its  Creator.  A  great  deal  of  "Nature 
study"  introduced  into  the  schools  of  the 
world,  as  a  result  of  the  work  of  Pestalozzi 
and  of  Froebel  is  unproductive,  because 
their  revelations  have  been  misunderstood. 
The  word  "study"  is  misleading.  The 
common  thought  has  been:  we  should  train 
the  children  to  study  Nature  when  they 
are  young,  in  order  that  they  may  enjoy 
the  study  of  Nature  when  they  are  older. 
Nature  has  been  studied  as  a  basis  for  in- 
vestigation and  classification.  Froebel 
revealed  Nature  to  the  child  as  a  growth 
process,  as  life  related  to  other  life,  as  life 
that  may  be  aided  to  higher  life,  and  as  one 
of  the  clearest  and  most  unfailingly  inter- 
esting revelations  of  v/isdom  and  unity. 


Character,  ideals,  vision 


93 


Recognizing  the  value  of  knowledge  after 
it  is  vitalized  by  assimilation  into  the  in- 
finitely more  important  element— the  child 
— recognizing  the  essential  value  of  the 
achieving  tendency,  as  a  means  of  trans- 
forming conditions  in  harmony  with  new 
ideals;  and  recognizing  the  importance  of 
training  the  observant,  the  conceptive,  and 
the  reasoning  powers,  Froebel's  whole  sys- 
tem aims  to  kindle  and  develop  the  imagi- 
nation and  the  vision  power,  so  that  the 
whole  being  may  be  harmoniously  bal- 
anced. 

It  is  not  enough  that  we  should  under- 
stand the  material  conditions  of  our  en- 
vironment, and  know  how  to  transform 
them.  We  should  be  qualified  to  under- 
stand the  higher  visions,  yet  unrevealed  in 
knowledge,  of  yr'  iseen  spiritual  beauty, 
and  of  human  relationships  to  each  other 
and  to  the  Divine,  that  are  becoming 
clearer  as  we  climb  out  of  the  mists. 


Chapter  IX 
The  developing  of  the  emotional  nature 

"The  diflference  between  one  man  and 
another  consists  not  so  much  in  talent 
as  in  energy,"— Dr.  Arnold 

The  greatest  engine  is  useless  without 
motive  power.  Character  cannot  be 
great  without  well  developed  motive  power. 
A  man  may  possess  knowledge;  wisdom; 
power  to  gain  more  knowledge  from  books, 
from  nature,  from  experience;  well  de- 
veloped power  to  reason;  kindled  imagin- 
ation and  revealing  vision  power,  without 
being  an  efficient  agent  in  promoting  a 
higher  civilization.  The  qualifications 
specified  fit  him  for  effective  service,  but 
in  addition  he  needs  motive  power  to  propel 
him   to  achievement. 

His  will  is  not  a  sufficient  battery  to  keep 
him  working  at  his  best.  Men  do  not  do 
their  best  when  they  ba-  e  to  be  kept  at 
work  even  by  their  o'       vill  power  acting 

94 


The  emotional  nature 


95 


in  response  to  a  conviction  of  duty.  Man's 
emotional  nature  is  his  strongest  impelling 
force— his   natural   battery   power. 

His  emotions  may  propel  him  towards 
good,  or  towards  evil,  towards  the  highest 
in  his  nature  or  towards  the  lowest.  Be- 
cause men  recognized  that  response  to 
emotion  had  great  possibilities  of  deg- 
radat^ion,  the  trainers  '.;  childhood  and 
youth  before  the  time  of  Froebel  con- 
sciously tried  to  weaken  and  restrict  the 
influence  of  the  emotional  nature,  even 
as  many  tried  to  strangle  the  imaginations 
of  children.  Steam  and  electricity  un- 
controlled are  very  dangerous;  controlled 
and  wisely  directed  they  are  powers  that 
move  the  machinery  of  the  world.  The 
emotions  are  the  battery  powers  of  char- 
acter. One  of  the  highest  duties  of  the 
trainer  of  the  child  is  to  develop  the  power 
and  the  controlling  <;endency  of  the  child's 
emotions,  and  to  give  him  self-a(''«e  di- 
rective power  to  guide   them. 

Froebel  knew  that  if  any  great  element 
or  tendency  in  the  life  of  a  child  is  "stran- 
gled in  its  cradle",  it  is  not  destroyed  but 


96 


Adult  and  child 


grows  on  in  the  child  in  a  perverted  con- 
dition, not  as  an  element  of  strength,  but 
as  an  element  of  evil.  Plato,  Goethe, 
Froebel,  and  Ruskin  understood  this  law: 
' 'All  evil  springs  from  unused  good' ' .  This 
is  a  vital  law  in  child  training.  Froebel 
made  the  law  clearer  by  teaching  that 
"Evil  springs  from  misused  good":  that 
every  element  of  goodness  in  our  nature 
will  weaken  or  degrade  us,  if  we  misuse 
it.  It  would  be  revolutionary  in  the  train- 
ing of  children,  if  educators  clearly  realized 
the  vital  meaning  of  the  profoundly  true 
law:  that  the  higher  the  power  is,  and  the 
greater  its  possibilities  of  good  in  the  child's 
character,  the  more  rapid  and  the  more 
complete  is  the  degradation  of  character 
resulting  from  its  misuse. 

The  fact  that  the  undeveloped  and  un- 
trained emotional  nature  is  liable  to  impel 
towards  evil,  is  not  a  good  reason  for  trying 
to  prevent  the  development  of  its  power. 
Leading  educators  until  recently  spoke 
approvingly  of  breaking  the  wills  of  strong 
willed  children.  Intelligent  men  now 
know  that  the  will  cannot  be  too  strong. 


»*• 


The  emotional  nature 


97 


They  know  also  that  the  thoughtless  soul 
surgeons  who  try  to  break  a  child's  will, 
are  guilty  of  a  crime,  compared  with  which 
the  deliberate  breaking  of  his  leg  would  be 
harmless.  Power  should  always  be  devel- 
oped, never  destroyed.  To  weaken  or 
destroy  any  power  must  inevitably  weaken 
character;  worse  than  this,  it  warps  char- 
acter. 

Neither  will  power,  nor  emotional  power, 
nor  any  other  great  power,  should  be  de- 
stroyed, or  weakened,  or  coerced.  Power 
should  be  developed  and  strengthened, 
and  made  more  effective  in  achievement. 
The  child  loves  to  achieve.  By  achieving, 
his  own  impelling  powers  and  achieving 
powers,  are  strengthened.  So  are  his  con- 
trolling and  directive  powers.  Every 
good,  controlling,  impelling,  and  directing 
power  attains  its  best  development,  when 
the  child  is  creatively  achieving  his  own 
plans. 

Weakening  his  emotional  power  robs 
the  child  of  self-impelling  power;  weaken- 
ing his  will  robs  him  of  self-directing  power; 
coercing  the  child  weakens  his  interest  in 


98 


Adult  and  child 


life.  It  weakens  also  his  powers  of  self 
discovery,  of  self-impelling,  and  of  self 
direction. 

Power  is  good  and  only  good.  It  may 
be  used  for  wrong  purposes.  Children 
through  lack  of  wisdom  and  of  experience 
often  do  use  power  for  wrong  purposes. 
They  do  so  because  adulthood  has  not 
provided  appropriate  conditions  for  the 
creative  use  of  the  child's  powers  in  trying 
to  achieve  right.  Whatever  the  reason 
may  be,  it  is  unwise  and  destructive  to 
weaken  the  misused  power,  when  it  is  only 
necessary  to  provide  more  attractive  con- 
ditions for  doing  right. 

The  child  is  naturally  creatively  oper- 
ative along  every  line  that  will  develop 
his  powers.  In  his  cradle  he  kicks  to 
develop  his  physical  powers.  His  mother 
does  not  need  to  train  him  to  kick.  The 
reasonable  mother  does  not  tie  down  his 
legs  because  he  kicks.  She  gradually 
leads  him  to  play  a  game  that  opp6ses 
her  power  to  his  by  pressing  with  her  hands 
against  his  little  feet,  not  to  stop  his  kicking, 
but  to  develop  his  power  to  use  the  muscles 


-■■»  - 


The  emotional  nature 


99 


of  his  legs.  What  a  revolution  in  child 
training  would  be  brought  about,  if 
throughout  his  childhood  parental  power 
and  child  power  worked  harmoniously  for 
the  development  of  his  powers. 

One  of  the  most  destructive  mistakes 
of  child  training  in  the  past  has  been  con- 
founding power  with  the  wrong  use  of  pow- 
er. Power  is  good.  Every  element  of  pow- 
er in  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual 
power  of  a  child  should  be  developed.  To 
fail  to  develop  a  child's  power  is  culpable 
negligence;  to  weaken  any  of  his  powers 
or  turn  them  to  destructive  elements  of 
character,  contributes  to  disastrous  failure 
in  his  life. 

Froebel's  whole  system  aims  to  develop 
power,  never  to  weaken  or  destroy  it.  His 
fundamental  law,  unity  or  inner  connection, 
made  it  clear  to  him  that  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  child  by  his  own  self-activity 
the  related  balancing  powers  of  life 
and  character  would  be  inter-stimulating, 
inter-developing,  and  inter-directing. 

He  planned   to  develop  the   emotional 


100 


Adult  and  child 


powers  of  the  child,  but  at  the  same  time, 
and  by  the  same  creative  processes  he 
developed  naturally,  in  harmony  with  the 
increase  of  the  propelling  force  of  the 
emotions,  corresponding  wisdom  to  direct, 
and  achieving  power  to  execute.  This  pro- 
duces a  balanced  character,  by  developing 
the  child's  powers;  instead  of  an  unbal- 
anced and  unproductive  character  which 
is  the  natural  result  of  failure  to  develop 
his  powers,  or  of  adult  interference  ^\'ith 
their  normal  growth. 

The  positive  emotions  are  good.  The 
so-called  evil  emotions  are  negative.  They 
have  no  really  positive  existence.  They 
exist  because  their  corresponding  good  emo- 
tions have  not  had  sufficient  opportunities 
for  development.  If  love  directed  our 
lives  vitally,  there  would  be  no  room  for 
hate.  Courage  developed  vitally,  makes 
fear  impossible. 

The  duty  of  adulthood  is  to  develop 
the  right  emotions  of  a  child,  and  to  make 
them  strong,  dominant,  impelling,  battery 
powers  in  his  life.  Failure  to  achieve 
our  plans  or  to  perform  revealed  duty, 


The  emotional  nature 


101 


does  not  result  from  lack  of  knowledge. 
If  men  did  as  well  :;3  Lucy  know,  the  world 
would  make  progress  much  more  rapidly 
towards  a  higher  civilization,  and  Christ's 
ideals  would  be  more  quickly  and  effectively 
realized.  If  men  universally  did  the 
brotherly  thing  they  know  to  be  needful, 
and  that  they  have  power  to  do,  they 
would  grow  more  triumphantly  in  char- 
acter power,  and  be  infinitely  happier, 
because  of  new  revelations  through  duty 
done. 

The  child  or  man  who  is  conscious  of 
a  revelation  of  duty  which  he  has  power 
to  perform,  and  who  fails  +  j  try  to  perform 
that  duty,  weakens  by  his  failure  one  of 
the  most  important  elements  of  his  char- 
acter. When  a  man  fails  to  try  to  per- 
form a  duty  of  which  he  is  clearly  con- 
scious, he  has  not  merely  failed  to  do  some- 
thing for  his  fellowmen,  he  has  clouded 
his  vision  of  duty,  weakened  the  vitality 
of  his  conscience,  and  lost  part  of  the  power 
that  impels  him  to  achieve.  It  will  be 
harder  in  future  for  duty  to  reveal  itself 
to  him,  and  his  battery  power  will  have 


102 


Adult  and  child 


to  be  stronger  than  before  in  order  to  move 
him  to  right  action. 

It  is  a  dangerous  practice  to  stir  the  true 
emotional  nature  of  a  child  without  imme- 
diately revealing  to  him  an  opportunity 
for  the  aroused  emotion  to  impel  him  to 
the  achievement  of  some  necessary  de- 
sirable good.  There  is  danger  in  the 
emotional  training  of  some  Sunday  schools, 
because  the  impelling  force  of  the  aroused 
emotions  is  not  used  in  right  effort.  The 
stirring  of  the  emotion  is  good,  if  it  is  used 
in  impelling  the  child  towards  correspond- 
ing activity. 

The  ultimate  aim  of  character  training 
is  effort  to  achieve  our  visions  of  right. 
The  stronger  the  effort  the  more  vital 
the  character.  The  direction  of  the  effort 
depends  largely  on  our  enlightened  con- 
science and  will;  the  energy  of  the  effort 
depends  largely  on  the  vital  development 
or  tne  emotional  nature.  Whe  any 
good  purpose  k  aroused,  if  its  stimulating 
motive  power  is  kindled  without  the  arous- 
ing and  kindling  leading  to  prompt  and 
energetic  efforts  to  achieve,  there  has  been 


The  emotional  nature 


103 


a  disastrous  failure.  Failure  is  always 
disastrous,  when  character  has  not  enough 
battery  power  to  achieve  our  plans. 

Froebel  saw  the  inherent  weakness  of 
the  old  character  training  ideals.  He 
believed  that  the  Creator  made  man  with 
a  wondrous  capacity  for  growth.  He 
believed  that  the  development  of  every 
power  in  man,  is  essential  in  making  him 
truly  operative  for  right.  He  believed 
that  the  development  of  his  intellectual 
and  spiritual  powers,  was  possible  far 
beyond  what  had  been  understood  and 
believed  before  his  time.  He  believed 
that  the  power  of  each  man  is  of  supreme 
value  to  him  and  to  his  race.  He  believed 
that  failure  to  develop  any  one  of  man's 
powers  weakened  all  his  other  powers. 
He  believed  that  coercive  interference 
with  the  development  of  a  child's  power 
is  a  crime  against  the  child  and  against 
humanit". 

He  was  the  first  to  make  training  of  the 
emotional  powers  a  definite  purpose  in 
education,  and  therefore  his  system  of 
training    and    its    underlying    philosophy 


f>  m 


104 


Adult  and  child 


should  be  studied  carefully  by  all  who 
are  responsible  for  improving  present 
methods  of  character  training. 

In  his  mother  play,  Froebel  revealed  to 
mothers  how  to  kindle  the  elements  of 
power  in  children,  including  emotional 
power. 

In  the  songs,  the  stories,  and  the  imagin- 
ative and  trade  plays,  he  starts  the  great 
emotions  to  grow  so  that  in  due  time  the 
child  may  become  a  man  not  only  wise, 
and  self -directing,  but  persistT.  ly  achiev- 
ing; because  he  is  stimulated  by  propelling 
emotions;  emotions  that  act  not  independ- 
ently of  wisdom  and  of  will,  but  in  harmony 
with  them. 


Chapter  X 

The  development  of  respect  for  law 

The  old  training  is  based  on  the  belief 
that  the  children  dislike  law.     This  mis- 
conception led  to  most  of  the  mistakes  of 
the  past  in  child  training.  ,  It  is  especially 
to  blan-'?  for  the  blind  faith  in  coercion. 
No  advocate  of  coercion  ever  claimed  that 
it  is  a  source  of  development.     Some  still 
say  it  stops  wrong  doing.     Even  if  coercion 
could  stop  wrong  doing  by  children,   it 
would  be  a  weak,  negative,  and  ineffective 
system  of  training.     The  child  develops  by 
doing,  not  by  not  doing.     As  has  already 
been  pointed  out,  coercion  is  the  lowest, 
the  least  effective,  and  most  power  per- 
verting stage  in  the  progressive  sequence 
of  training  ideals;  coercion,  co-operation, 
and  creativity. 

All  children  naturally  love  law.  All 
children  as  naturally  dislike  tyranny.  It 
is  clearly  a  good  element  of  character  to 

105 


s    '}i 


i    ». 


106 


Adult  and  child 


dislike  tyranny.  Parental  tyranny,  or 
teacher  tyranny,  is  quite  as  presumptuous, 
and  quite  as  destructive  of  power,  as  nation- 
al t)rranny.  Despotism  is  as  dangerous 
in  the  home  or  school  as  in  the  state.  True 
growth  in  the  nation  or  in  the  individual, 
must  be  based  on  freedom. 

Children  love  law  and  respect  it  till 
tyranny,  somewhere  in  the  home  or  school, 
robs  them  of  their  productive  love  and 
respect.  Respect  for  law  is  one  of  the 
fundamental  elements  of  good  character, 
and  of  good  citizenship.  It  is  an  element 
in  the  child's  character  naturally.  The 
failure  to  develop  it  consciously  by  definite, 
systematic  methods  is  culpable  negligence, 
on  the  part  of  parents  and  teachers.  The 
common  practice  of  coercion  by  which  the 
child  is  forced  to  lose  respect  for  law,  and 
to  become  antagonistic  to  it,  is  appallingly 
character  weakening. 

"But"  say  objectors,  "the  parent  is 
responsible  for  the  child,  and  parenthood 
is  compelled  to  be  coercive  in  order  to  stop 
the  child  from  doing  wrong."  There  is  a 
short  period  during  infancy,  when  it  may 


Respect  for  law 


107 


be   necessary,   occasionally,   to  save   the 
infant  frj^n  accident,  or  to  save  property 
irciii  injury  by  prompt  action  of  a  restrain- 
ing  nature.    Even   then   parents   should 
avoid  the  evil  effects  of  interference,  which 
are  generally  more  disastrous  to  character 
than  the  infant's  action  would  have  been 
to  its  body  or  to  property.     If  interference 
IS  accompanied  by  joyous  laughter  and 
lovmg   embrace   instead   of   by   coercive 
order  in  a  high  key,  solemn  threatening, 
sudden  snatching,   or  menacing  gesture, 
the  child  may  be  saved  from  humiliation 
and  from  consciousness  of  coercive  inter- 
ference. 

The  parent  is  responsible  for  the  child, 
and  his  highest  responsibility  is  for  the 
development  of  all  the  elements  of  power 
in  the  child's  life.  Stopping  wrong  doing 
does  not  produce  right  doing.  Worse 
than  this,  stopping  wrong  doing  interferes 
with  the  development  of  the  child's  most 
productive  tendency— the  tendency  to  do— 
which  not  only  is  the  most  productive 
tendency  of  the  child,  but  is  the  tendency 
that  gives  final  value  to  every  other  good 


i 


108 


Adult  and  child 


clement  in  the  child's  chftracter.    Stopping 
doing  is  essentially  bad  training. 

If  as  much  training  were  devoted  ♦o 
doing,  as  has  been  devoted  to  don'ting 
there  would  be  little  reason  for  parents 
or  tea^ncrs  to  even  think  of  the  absurd 
and  destructive  coercion  of  the  past.  Even 
during  infancy  it  is  possible  to  surround 
♦he  child  by  conditions  that  will  make 
serious  danger  to  him  practically  impos- 
sible, and  to  supply  him  with  materials 
for  occupation  of  great  variety  and  strong 
interest  to  him,  of  such  a  nature  that  he 
cannot  injure  himself  or  damage  furniture 
or  other  property  in  the  home.  It  is  easy 
if  we  study  the  child's  progressive  interests 
and  his  developing  tendencies  and  powers 
to  j)rovide  him,  at  practically  no  expense, 
with  materials  for  his  constructive  use 
which  will  keep  him  interested  and  happy, 
and  at  the  same  time  will  develop  his  skill, 
and  his  transforming  and  achieveing  ten- 
dencies. 

A  child  never  objects  to  the  laws  of  his 
games.  He  may  dispute  vigorously  in 
regard  to  the  occurrences  of  the  game.     lie 


Respect  for  law 


109 


will  arRue  in  rcRard  to  the  "balls"  and 
"strikes",  or  question  whether  the  l)atlfT 
reached  first  base  before  the  ball,  but  ho 
never    questions    the    law.     One    of    the 
chief  aims  of  adulthood  should  be  to  pre- 
serve    and    develop    the    child's    natural 
respect  for  the  law,  and  make  it  one  of  the 
dominant  elements  in  Ruidinp  him  in  de- 
ciding  his  conduct  in  all  his  life  relations. 
The  child's  respect  for  the  laws  of  the 
game,  should  naturally  be  developed  into 
respect  for  the  laws  of  his  school,  into 
respect  for  the  laws  of  his  municipality 
into  respect  for  the  laws  of  his  country' 
and  away  above  these  into  respect  for  the 
la^ys  of  his  own  life  and  growth,  and  in- 
finitely above  these  into  respect  for  the 
laws   of  God. 

This  development  in  conscious  respect 
for  law  IS  as  natural  as  any  other  growth 
of  the  child,  if  it  is  not  interfered  with. 
VVhen  adulthood  gets  a  reverent  'lith  in 
the  child,  the  child's  respect  for  law  will 
never  be  lost. 

It  is  impossible  to  develop  a  truly  pro- 


110 


Adult  and  child 


gressive  respect  for  law,  so  long  as  adult- 
hood believes  that  children  dislike  law. 
It  was  natural,  and  it  is  still  natural  for 
adults  who  believe  that  the  child  dislikes 
law,  to  try  to  make  him  fear  the  law. 
Weak  types  may  be  held  in  bond  by  fear, 
but  fear  never  develops  respect.  Some 
thoughtless  people  still  confound  fear  of 
law,  and  respect  for  law.  They  are  abso- 
lutely diverse;  the  one  m.akes  the  other 
impossible.  Fear  of  law  prevents  respect 
for  law.  Respect  for  law  robs  law  of  its 
terror.  Fear  is  always  devitalizing;  res- 
pect  is  always   vitalizing. 

Froebel  in  evc-y  occupation,  in  every 
operative  process,  and  in  every  game  in 
the  kindergarten,  makes  law  essential 
as  the  sure  guide  to  greater  achievement. 
The  first  day  the  child  is  at  school  in  his 
kindergarten,  he  learns,  by  revealing  opera- 
tive processes,  the  law  of  opposites,  or  of 
balance,  or  of  harmony,  or  of  related  unity 
by  making  his  "form  of  beauty"  after  he 
has  made  his  "first  cut".  He  may  make 
hundreds  of  "forms  of  beauty"  afterwards, 
and  in  doing  so  he  follows  the  same  great 


Respect  for  law 


111 


law,  although  he  never  repeats  the  pattern 
of  his  first  "form  of  beauty."  Each  "form 
of  beauty"  is  a  new  creation,  and  he  knows 
he  could  not  make  one  of  them  without 
the  law  of  opposites.  In  the  course  of 
his  experience  this  law  becomes  a  part  of 
his  conscious  life.  Without  this  law  he 
might  have  cut  and  pasted  paper  for  years 
without  making  one  harmonious  form  of 
beauty. 

In   this  way  he  comes  to  know  that 
law  is  his  guide,  and  recognizes  law  as  his 
friend.     He  recognizes  law  as  a  directive 
and  not  a  restrictive  force  in  his  life;  a  force 
that  leads  to  doing  and  not  to  don'ting. 
Law  is  a  positive  element  in  the  kinder- 
garten, and  not  a  negative  element.     It 
helps  the  child  to  achieve  instead  of  inter- 
fering with  his  efforts  to  achieve.     He  is 
taught  this  great  lesson  not  in  words,  but 
by  operative  processes  that  follow  laws  of 
which  he  has  become  conscious.     Operative 
processes  are  the  only  processes  by  which 
great  laws  may  be  wrought  into  character. 
The  law  of  opposites,    or  balance,   or 


i 


112 


Adult  and  child 


xarmony,  or  related  unity,  will  evolve  in 
the  child's  life  as  he  grows  older,  and  will 
reveal  to  him  the  need  of  balanced  powers 
in  his  character.  It  will  gradually  qualify 
him  to  understand  the  rhythmic  harmony 
of    the    universe. 

In  the  same  paper  cutting  and  pasting 
occupation  already  considered,  the  child 
has  revealed  to  him  the  law  of  sequence. 
As  he  is  taught  to  make  fold  after  fold  and 
cut  after  cut,  he  learns  that  they  follow  one 
another  in  a  logical  and  definitely  related 
sequence,  and  when  he  is  older  this  law 
makes  reasoning  in  logical  sequence  a 
natural  process. 

It  should  be  remembered,  too,  that  the 
revelation  of  law  as  a  guide  to  successful 
achievement,  is  but  one  of  several  dis- 
tinctively educational  results  of  the  single 
occupation  of  cutting  and  pasting.  This 
is  tfuv.  of  all  the  occupations  of  the  kinder- 
garten. Throughout  the  whole  range  of 
his  occupations,  his  games,  and  his  plays, 
the  child's  success  is  achieved  by  his  obe- 
dience to  law. 


Respect  for  law 


113 


Most  child  trainers  still  demand  obedi- 
ence to  themselves  instead  of  obedience 
to  law,  and  respect  for  themselves  instead 
of  respect  for  law.  By  doing  so  they  lose 
the  sympathetic  respect  of  the  child,  and 
prevent  the  development  of  respect  for 
law,  as  a  conscious  element  in  his  being, 
as  one  of  the  most  essential  qualifications 
for  gor  i  citizenship,  and  for  reliability  of 
character. 

"The  perfect  law  of  liberty"  is  one  of 
the  most  profound  expressions  in  the  Bible. 
It  reveals  the  vital  truth  that  law  and  lib- 
erty should  be  in  perfect  harmony;    that 
control  and  freedom  are  in  no  sense  in  con- 
flict.    Froebel  aimed  to  make  the  kinder- 
garten   "A   free   republic   of   childhood". 
This  is  the  highest  conception  of  the  train- 
ing  of   childhood    yet   revealed    to   man; 
that  the  child  should  be  ever  under  law-- 
but  alwav  6  free;  guided  by  the  same  funda- 
mental laws  as  his  fellows,  but  under  these 
laws  free  to  achieve  his  own  original  plans 
independently.     In  this  way  he  learns  to 
respect  law  and  to  respect  himself,  as  a 
being  capable  of  understanding  the  "perfect 


114 


Adult  and  child 


!l 


law  of  liberty",  and  capable  also  of  cre- 
ative achievement  by  following  directive 
law. 

Character  training  will  be  revolutionized, 
when  men  understand  the  inner  meaning 
of  the  Bible  expression  "the  perfect  law 
of  liberty",  and  when  homes  and  schools 
become    "Free    republics    of   childhood". 

Many  very  intelligent  people  yet  shudder 
at  the  mere  suggestion  of  freedom  for 
children.  Some  of  them  do  not  hesitate 
to  blame  the  kindergarten  for  the  disrespect 
for  authority  on  the  part  of  many  children, 
although  they  know  absolutely  nothing 
about  kindergarten  philosophy,  or  true 
kindergarten  practice.  Gladstone,  at 
seventy,  said  the  one  criticism  he  had  to 
make  of  the  teachers  in  the  school  he  had 
attended  was  that  "They  were  afraid  of 
liberty".  History,  and  experience  in  our 
own  time  prove  that  there  is  most  anarchy, 
where  there  is  least  freedom.  Anarchy 
is  the  son  of  coercion — not  of  freedom. 
Men's  minds  will  always  be  confused  in 
regard  to  child  freedom,  until  they  defi- 
nitely comprehend  the  difference  between 


Respect  for  law 


115 


"Liberty  under  law",  and  liberty  without 
law. 

There   are   thousands   of   schools  now, 
since  Froebel's  ideal  of  "Free  republics  of 
childhood"  was  rexealed,  in   which  there 
are  never  any  cases  of  "discipline"  such 
as  used  to  occupy  so  much  time,  and  cause 
so  much  sorrow,  and  dwarf  the  originality 
and  the  power  of  so  many  children.     Yet 
the  pupils  in  these  schools  are  attentive, 
interested,   progressive,   co-operative,   and 
creatively  self-active  in  vital  processes  to 
a  much  greater  extent    and  to  a  much 
higher  degree  than  in  the  schools  of  former 
days,  which  were  in  no  sense  "Free  re- 
publics of  childhood",  not  even  constitu- 
tional   monarchies,    but    were    absolute, 
despotic   monarchies   in   which   arbitrary 
law  and  authority  were  dogmatically  es- 
tablished,  and  despotically  administered. 
Democratic  principles  are  sure  to  tri- 
umph ultimately.     Good  democratic  citi- 
zenship is  not  promoted  by  despotism  even 
in  the  control  of  childhood.     There  should 
be  perfect  harmony  between  control  and 
freedom.     The   success    of   democracy   is 


116 


Adult  and  child 


essentially  dependent  on  consciousness  of 
the  true  meaning  of  the  "Perfect  law  of 
liberty". 

The  kindergarten  is  a  perfect  democracy 
in  which  the  natural  respect  of  the  child 
for  law  is  fostered  and  developed,  and  in 
which  law  is  recognized  as  essential  to  suc- 
cess in  every  department  of  the  child's 
work.  It  is  absolutely  impossible  that 
any  man  who  studies  the  work  of  a  good 
kindergarten,  and  the  philosophy  on  which 
the  work  is  based,  can  believe  that  a 
kindergarten  could  weaken  a  child's  vital 
respect  for  law  and  order. 

Froebel  said  "If  national  order  is  to  be 
recognized  in  later  years  as  a  benefit,  child- 
hood must  first  be  accustomed  to  law  and 
order,  and  therein  find  the  means  of  free- 
dom." 

Froebel's  greatest  contemporary  inter- 
preter—the Baroness  Von  Marenholz- 
Bulow  wrote- "Nothing  is  left  then,  but 
to  set  free  obedience  in  the  place  of  blind 
obedience,  and  to  render  the  masses  through 
civilization  capable  of  seeing  that  only 
the  self-restraint  of  individuals  and  their 


Respect  for  law 


117 


voluntary  subjection  to  law,  make  greater 
freedom  in  society  possible.  That  mode 
of  education  which  can  solve  this  prob- 
lem may  jr-My  be  called  education  for 
freedom." 

Froebel's  system  aims  to  lead  to  the 
future  free  and  conscious  obedience  to 
law,  and  thereby  lead  at  the  same  time  to 
the  highest  possible  degree  of  freedom. 

There  may  be  deadness  under  law,  or 
life  under  law.  We  may  develop  respect 
for  law  as  a  dominant  element  in  character 
by  making  law  the  supervising  partner  in 
the  child's  creative  work,  or  we  may  de- 
velop a  dislike  for  law  by  making  it  merely 
the  subordinate  agent  of  coercion.  We 
may  rev^eal  law  as  beneficence,  or  as 
enslavement. 


Chapter  XI 

The  development  oj  conscious  responsibility 

Responsibility,  self-consciousness,  and 
self-control  were  treated  negatively  in  the 
old  training.  Children  were  made  con- 
scious of  weakness,  not  of  power.  Respon- 
sibility meant  responsibility  for  the  wrong 
we  did,  not  for  the  right  we  have  power 
and  opportunity  to  do.  Self-consciousness 
meant  consciousness  of  weakness,  not 
consciousness  of  strength.  Self-control 
meant  power  to  resist  temptation  and  keep 
away  from  evil,  instead  of  power  to  use 
the  achieving  elements  in  our  natures  to 
promote  the  development  of  humanity, 
and  transform  conditions  in  the  way  of 
advancing  civilization. 

Of  course  we  are  responsible  for  the 
wrong  we  do,  but  there  is  no  vitality  in 
that  thought.  There  is  vitahty  in  the 
thought  that  I  have  power  to  do  something 
for  God  and  humanity  better  than  any 

118 


Conscious  responsibility  II9 

other  man.    There  is  some  vision  I  alone 
have  power  to  see  truly.     I  am  responsible 
for  seemg  my  vision  and  for  achieving  my 
work.    The  consciousness  of  this  is  the 
only  basis  on  which  a  vital  propelling  recog- 
nition of  my  responsibility  can  rest.     The 
new  training  makes  a  child  conscious  of  his 
special  power,  his  individuality,  his  self- 
hood,  and  reveals  his  relationships  to  his 
fellowmen,  so  that  he  becomes  clearly  re- 
sponsible for  the  use  of  his  selfhood  in  the 
achievement  of  his  part  in  promoting  the 
highest  interests  of  humanity.     The  con- 
sciousness of  special  power  logically  leads 
to  the  consciousness  of  special  duty.     The 
new  traijiing  reveals  the  highest  duty  of 
each  child  to  attain  to  his  highest  individu- 
aUty  in  order  that  organized  and  related 
humanity  may  be  aided  by  him  in  taking 
its  next  upward  step. 

Life  is  a  success  in  proportion  to  our 
achievement  of  good;  it  is  a  failure  in  pro- 
portion to  the  amount  of  good  we  might 
have  done,  but  failed  to  do. 

Even  the  recent  books  on  moral  training 
that  are  not  based  on  the  philosophy  of 


120 


Adult  and  child 


Froebel,  treat  self-control  as  a  power  to 
resist  temptation  and  to  keep  away  from 
evil.  A  very  modern  book  written  by  a 
very  able  man,  gives  as  an  illustration  of 
self-control,  the  power  of  a  reformed  drunk- 
ard to  resist  the  temptation  to  drink,  and 
to  keep  away  from  the  saloon  in  which  he 
formerly  wasted  his  life  and  his  money. 
It  is  better  to  resist  wrong  than  to  yield  to 
it.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  a  man  may 
keep  away  from  the  saloon  and  from  every 
other  form  of  evil,  and  yet  achieve  nothing 
for  God  or  for  humanity. 

There  is  no  vitality  in  negative  goodness. 
There  is  small  reason  to  boast  of  making 
a  being  created  in  the  image  of  God,  a 
ir.are  dodger  of  defects.  Training  must 
do  more  than  guide  him  away  from  evil; 
it  must  fill  his  Hfe  with  propelling  deter- 
mination to  do  good — to  do  his  special  kind 
of  good — and  develop  his  achieving  powers 
so  that  he  may  be  able  to  carry  out  his 
plans  successfully.  This  is  true  the  mean- 
ing of  self-control. 

Responsibility  has  been  revealed  in  the 
past  as  a  solemn  duty.     It  should  be  re- 


Conscious  responsibility  121 

T W  V°  '  M  'u  "^''"  "^  ^  ^^'^^  privilege. 
There  should  be  no  solemnity  associated 
with  responsibility.  Duty  will  be  joyous 
when  children  are  properly  trained;  when 
creativity  ,s  universally  substituted  for 
coercion;  when  spontaneity  and  control 
are  seen  to  be  elements  of  the  same  unity 

htrny^^^^  ^"^  '^-  -  ^--  to  be  fn 

Loving  service  can  never  become  com- 
pulsory  service.  Service  should  become 
increasingly  joyous  throughout  life.  Men 
destroy  the  elements  of  joyous  service  by 
wrong  .deals  of  training,  and  then  marvel 
chat  It  so  generally  dies  as  an  effective 
spontaneous  element  in  character 

There  can  be  no  other  joy  so  completely 
satisfymg.  or  as  richly  developing  to  a  man^ 
as  the  successful  achievement  of   origina 
and  unselfish  plans.  original 

Responsibility  should  reveal  our  most 
attractive  fields  of  happiness,  and  pro"  de 
our  most  stimulating  interests  in  our  con- 
scious  upward   progress.     It   will   do   so 

when  al  the  children  have  their  individual 
powers  kindled;  their  achieving  tendencies 


122 


Adult  and  child 


KiJ 


developed;  their  organic  unity  with  the 
race  revealed;  their  responsibility  for 
making  their  impress  on  civilization,  by 
achieving  the  good  they  have  power  to  do, 
made  clear  to  them;  and  their  faith  in  them- 
t  Ives  as  the  representatives  of  the  Divine, 
made  the  supreme  motive  of  their  lives. 

"Idealism"  some  say,  who  lack  the  true 
vision.  The  world  makes  all  progress  by 
struggling  towards  higher  ideals.  No 
thoughtful  man  or  woman  is  satisfied  with 
the  results  of  child  training  in  the  past. 

Humanity  needs  to  be  guided  by  a  new 
idealism  in  character  training.  Froebel 
has  given  a  new  interpretation  of  Christ's 
ideals,  and  his  interpretation  is  the  most 
reasonable,  and  the  most  hopeful  yet 
given  to  humanity.. 


Chapter  XII 

Adulthood  should  make  the  chUd  conscious 
of  power:  never  of  weakness 

Self-consciousness    has    been    regarded 
as  a  weakness.    There  are  two  kinds  of 
self-consciousness  of  power.    By  making 
a  child   conscious  of   weakness   I  make 
him  weaker;  by  making  him  conscious  of 
his  power  I  am  kindling  the  elements  that 
will  keep  him  growing  towards  the  Divine 
by  making  him  conscious  of  power  to 
achieve   I  am  making  him  conscious  of 
power  to  achieve  for  the  Divine.    Each 
child  represents  a  thought  of  God,  and  a 
plan  of  God.     I  should  reveal  this  glory  of 
his  birth-right  to  him  in  every  way  possible 
so  that  he  may  climb  triumphantly  through 
life  W7th  achieving  faith  in  God,  and  in 
him>elf. 

Whoever  contributes  in  any  way  to  mak- 
ing a  child  conscious  of  weakness  or  badness 
IS  developing  weakness  or  evil  in  the  child 
By  calling  a  child  '-'bad,"  I  am  defining 

123 


124 


Adult  and  child 


the  ideal  of  badness  in  his  mind  and  life. 
I  am  not  defining  the  ideal  of  abstract 
badness,  but  cf  badness  in  him.     There 
is    a      :range    and    altogether    degrading 
anomaly  in  calling  a  being  created  in  the 
image  of  God  "bad".     Twisted  he  may  be; 
a  great  organism  out  of  order  he  may  be. 
My  duty  is  to  find  out  what  is  the  matter 
with  his  organism  and  set  it  right,  so  that 
his  organism  may  grow  more  freely  and 
truly.     He  is  a  musical  instrument  making 
discord.     My  duty  is  to  get  him  in  tune 
with  the  universe,  so  that  he  may  produce 
divine  harmony.     I  should  never  call  him 
"bad."     I  should  watch  for  any  act  of  his 
that  is  generous  or  brave,  or  kind,  or  manly, 
and  when  he  and  I  are  alone,  I  shor  id  let 
him  know  with  hearty  appreciation  that  I 
saw  him  do  it,  and  that  I  am  proud  of  him 
for  doihg  it.     It  may  be  that  a  special 
hand  clasp  of  appreciation  may  be  better 
than  words.     I  should  be  ever  on  the  alert 
to  plan  opportunities  for  service  by  him 
for  some  one  whom  he  can  help. 

The  old  theology  was  to  a  large  extent 
responsible    for    making     humanity    self- 


Consciousness  of  power,  not  of  weakness  1 25 


conscious  of  wellness.  It  imght  that 
self-faith  was  sinf.'l.  it  prca-ned  spurious 
humility.  It  perii'  t-:HK-  toU  us  we  were 
"worms"— "poor,  unworthy  worms  of  the 
dust".  Wormy  Christians  are  useless. 
They  are  right  in  calling  themselves  "un- 
worthy". They  might  use  stronger  ad- 
jectives and  still  be  within  the  mark. 

Compared  with  the  Divine  Creator, 
we  are  but  worms.  But  we  represent  His 
plans;  we  are  thoughts  of  God.  He  sent 
us  here  to  be  His  representative  partners. 
We  should  use  our  powers  to  achieve  the 
visions  He  gives  us,  instead  of  calling 
ourselves  "worms". 

When  Marmion  had  done  the  work  as- 
signed by  the  English  King  at  the  court 
of  the  Scotch  King,  the  Scotch  King  rec- 
ognized that  Marmion  was  his  guest  till 
he  got  out  of  Scotland  on  his  way  back  to 
London,  so  he  asked  the  Border  Chieftain 
Douglas  to  entertain  Marmion. 

Douglas  despised  Marmion,  but  he  obey- 
ed his  King.  He  entertained  Marmion 
courteously  till  the  morning,  when  Mar- 


126 


Adult  and  child 


i. 


mion  and  his  troop  stood  ready  in  the  court- 
yard to  depart.  Then  Marmion  cordially 
extended  his  hand  to  shake  the  hand  of 
his  host.  Douglas  scornfully  refused  to 
take  the  offered  hand  and  said: 

"My  castles  are  my  king's  alone 
From  turret  to  foundation  stone. 
The  hand  of  Douglas  is  his  own, 
And  never  shall  in  friendly  grasp 
The  hand  of  such  as  Marmion  clasp." 

That  would  have  daunted  most  men 
but  Marmion  stood  up  and  bravely  replied: 

"He  who  does  England's  message  here, 
Although  the  meanest  in  her  state. 
May  well,  proud  Angus,  be  thy  mate." 

That  should  be  our  spirit.  We  are  not 
here  as  individuals  merely.  We  are  here  as 
representatives  of  our  King.  We  are  truly 
unworthy  representatives,  if  we  whine  and 
call  ourselves  "worms". 

We  should  make  our  children  self-con- 
scious of  strength,  not  of  weakness.  We 
should  teach  and  act  as  if  we  believed  that 


Consciousness  of  power,  not  of  weakness  127 

Christ  came  not  merely  that  we  should 
have  power,  "but  power  more  abundantly". 
We  should  teach  that  "more  abundant 
power"  is  ever  the  reward  for  honest  effort 
to  achieve  the  vision  of  today. 


'.H 


Chapter  XIII 

Control  and  spontaneity 

"The  Child  is  the  Sum  of  the  World" 
— Emerson. 

"Let  Childhood  ripen  in  Childhood" 
— Froebel. 

If  a  man  is  to  be  free  at  maturity  he 
must  be  free  in  the  subordinate  stages  of 
childhood  arid  youth. 

There  may  be  perfect  harmony  between 
control  and  spontaneity. 

The  true  ideal  between  parent  and  child 
IS  what  the  Bible  calls  the  "perfect  law  of 
liberty". 

The  child  develops  by  what  he  does  him- 
self, and  plans  himself.  If  any  meddle- 
some or  inconsiderate  parent  or  other  adult 
interferes  with  his  work  and  prevents  his 
spontaneous  activity  either  through  kind- 
ness or  ignorance,  he  arrests  the  develop- 
ment of  the  child's  best  powers. 

The  child's  interest  cannot  be  fully  arous- 
128 


Control  and  spontaneity  129 

ed  by  plans  made  by  others-especially 
plans  made  by  adults. 

The  little  girl  who  said,  "What  is  the 
^^e  of  havmg  a  planner  of  my  own.  if  I 
have  to  keep  doing  what  you  plan",  was 
wiser  than  her  mother.  Self-activity  is  the 
basis  of  vital  character  training. 

Training    should    mean    development. 
Development   should   mean   free   growth 
Free    growth    results    from    self-activity 
which  means  the  free  action  of  the  child 
in  trying  to  achieve  his  own  plans. 

The    child    develops    more    completely 
and  more  rapidly  by  action  directed  by 
others  than  by  study,  but  action  under  the 
direction  of  others  develops  his  least  essen- 
tial powers,  and  these  only  to  a  limited  ex- 
tent,  and  very  imperfectly.     Powers  de- 
veloped by  action  under  the  direction  of 
others,  do  not  promote  the  self-develop- 
ment of  the  greatest  powers  in  the  child. 
The   only  complete   development   of  a 
child  must  be  attained  by  free  activity  in 
trying  to  achieve  his  own  plans. 

If  we  keep  the  child  in  an  environment 
of  matenals  suitable  for  the  kindling  of 


130 


Adult  and  child 


productive  interests  during  the  successive 
stages  of  his  related  periods  of  intellectual 
and  spiritual  growth,  and  allow  him  free- 
dom in  using  these  materials,  his  selfhood 
or  highest  power  will  develop,  and  its  de- 
velopment will  give  a  new  and  higher  value 
to  all  his  other  powers. 

The  development  of  a  child's  selfhood 
really  means  th'^  awakening  and  growth 
of  his  re-creative,   and   creating   powers. 

Activity  in  response  to  tie  direction  of 
adults  during  the  child's  early  years  not 
only  fails  to  make  the  child  creative,  it 
prevents  the  development  of  his  creative 
power. 

The  only  possible  way  in  which  a  child's 
creative  power  and  tendency  can  be  devel- 
oped is  by  self-activity— that  is  activity 
in  carrying  out  his  own  plans. 

The  greatest  '.evelation  that  can  ever  be 
made  to  a  child  is  the  revelation  of  his 
selfhood,  or  individuality,  or  the  special 
image  of  God  in  him.  This  is  the  element 
in  him  which  must  be  developed  in  order 
that  he  may  do  his  special  part  in  promoting 
the  true  progress  of  humanity. 


Control  and  spontaneity  131 

Without  the  development  of  his  selfhood 
a  child  cannot  become  a  true  representative 
of  his  Creator. 

No  form  of  coercion  ever  kindled  a  soul. 

Every  form  of  coercion  dwarfs  the  self- 
hood and  the  creative  power  of  a  child. 

Every  child  loves  to  work  in  co-operation 
with  father  or  mother  until  by  some  act 
of  disrespect  or  of  tyranny  the  golden  bond 
of  unity  between  the  child  and  his  parents 
IS  broken.  The  child  never  breaks  the 
bond. 


Chapter  XIV 

Courtesy  and  reverence 

One  of  the  much  used  maxims  in  regard 
to  child  training  has  been :  "Children  should 
be  reverent  to  their  elders".  It  is  of  much 
greater  importance  that  the  "elders"  should 
be  reverent  to  the  children. 

When  all  the  elders  are  vitally  reverent 
to  children— not  to  their  own  children  only, 
but  to  all  children— then  all  children  will 
naturally  be  reverent  to  their  elders. 

When  all  parents  and  other  adults  are 
genuinely  courteous  to  the  children,  the 
children  will  be  as  genuinely  courteous  to 
adults  and  to  each  other,  as  their  seniors 
are  to  them  and  to  each  other. 

Vital  reverence  and  genuine  courtesy 
were  never  developed  in  a  child's  char- 
acter by  demanding  them.  They  grow 
in  the  child  heart  not  in  response  to  orders 
from  adults,  but  in  response  to  reverence 
ar     courtesy  from  adults. 

132 


Courtesy  and  reverence 


133 


The  reverence  and  courtesy  of  adults 
must  be  real.  They  must  not  be  super- 
ficial forms  merely,  they  must  be  the  joyous 
expression  of  true  feelinf:s  of  reverence  and 
courtesy  in  the  hearts  of  the  adults. 

Demanding  and  ordering  courtesy  from 
a  child  makes  courtesy  a  formal  matter, 
and  prevents  the  outgrowth  of  real  courtesy 
from  within  the  child's  heart.  The  re- 
sponse of  the  child  is  not  true  courtesy. 

The  reverence  given  on  order  is  not 
genuine  reverence,  it  is  awe  combined  with 
fear. 

Reverence  and  courtesy  compelled  from 
the  child  injure  the  child  in  two  ways; 
by  preventing  the  growth  of  true  reverence 
and  vital  courtesy  in  his  heart,  and  by  com- 
pelling him  to  be  a  hypocrite. 

A  hypocrite  is  the  meanest  thing  that 
can  be  made  out  of  a  1.  ing  created  in  the 
image  of  God. 

Reverence  and  courtesy  given  in  response 
to  loving  reverence  and  genuine  consider- 
ation are  as  natural  as  the  response  of  the 
leaf  buds  and  flower  buds  to  the  warmth 
of  the  sunshine  in  the  Spring. 


134 


Adtdt  and  child 


The  greatest  need  of  humanity  in  all 
Its  dealings  with  the  child  is  a  more  pro- 
found  reverence  for  the  child  himself,  and 
for  the  essential  value  of  the  individual 
soul. 

Reverence  for  the  individual  soul  is  the 
real  foundation  for  freedom;  for  democracy 
as  revealed  by  Christ. 


: 


Chapter  XV 
Freedom  and  obedience 

Freedom  has  meant  merely  freedom  for 
men;  it  now  means  freedom  for  women  too. 
Freedom  for  the  child  will  be  the  greatest 
step  in  htiman  development. 

"Free  obedience  must  take  the  place  of 
blind  obedience." 

All  children  love  to  be  obedient  till  some 
one  chills  their  love. 

"All  evil  springs  from  unused  good." 
So  said  Plato,  Goethe,  Ruskin.  It  is  clear- 
ly true  that  misused  good  develops  into  its 
corresponding  evil.  So  does  every  unde- 
veloped element  in  the  child's  nature. 

Obedience  perverted  by  parental  or  other 
adult  unwisdom  naturally  and  inevitably 
degenerates  into  disobedience. 

Respect  for  law  in  the  child  naturally 
becomes  rebellion  against  law,  when  adults 
are  tyrannical  and  coercive. 

Every  good  element  in  the  nature  of  a 
135 


136 


Adult  and  child 


child  will  degrade  him  if  it  is  undeveloped 
or  misused.  This  should  be  one  of  the 
most  suggestive  truths  to  all  who  have  the 
privilege  of  assisting  in  the  training  of 
children,  because  the  higher  the  good  ele- 
ment in  a  child's  heart  is,  the  more  quickly 
and  the  more  deeply  it  will  degrade  him 
if  unused,  or  especially  if  misused. 

The  highest  way  in  which  adulthood  can 
co-operate  with  childhood  in  its  develop- 
ment, is  by  guiding  it  in  the  use  of  the  good 
elements  in  its  life. 

Law  should  be  directive  to  the  child, 
instead  of  restrictive. 

The  child  loves  the  law  of  the  game, 
and  all  directive  law.  This  love  of  law 
which  is  natural  in  the  child's  life  is  capable 
of  growth  till  it  becomes  one  of  the  supreme 
elements  in  his  developed  and  still  develop- 
ing  moral  nature. 

When  law  is  used  coercively  love  of  law 
becomes  hatred  of  tyranny,  and  the  child 
gets  a  character-destroying  attitude  to  law. 

Respect  for  the  law  of  the  game  should 
develop,    will    develop,    under    respectful 


Freedom  and  obedience  137 

guidance  by  making  law  a  .lircctive  instead 
of  a  restraining  force,  into  respect  for  law 
in  the  schwl,  an.l  in  society— in  town,  city, 
state  and  empire  or  conniry;  and  ulti- 
mately into  conscious  respect  for  the  laws 
of  our  own  lives  and  for  the  laws  of  God. 


Chapter  XVI 
Coercion  weakens 

Coercion  in  every  form  interferes  with 
growth,  and  must  therefore  prevent  the 
use  of  the  good  elements  in  the  lives  of 
children. 

Coercion  weakens  and  degrades  character 
because  it  interferes  with  the  use  of  the 
child's  powers,  and  all  unused  or  misused 
powers  for  good  are  certain  to  become 
powers  for  evil,  negatively  or  positively, 
usually  both. 

Coercion  may  stop  wrong  doing,  but 
only  while  the  coercive  agent  is  present; 
and  even  then  it  is  the  most  ineffectual, 
the  most  dangerous,  and  the  most  com- 
temptible  means  of  stopping  wrong  doing. 

The  old  training  stopped,  when  it  could, 
not  only  wrong  doing,  but  doing.  Doing 
what  the  child  plans  is  the  supreme  way 
of  developing  a  child's  selfhood  and  making 
him  conscious  of  it,  of  revealing  his  other 

1^8 


Coercion   weakens 


139 


powers  related  to  his  selfhood,  and  of  un- 
folding  to  him  higher  visions  of  duty. 

When  doing  makes  a  child  conscious  of 
his  special  power,  it  gives  him  the  only 
true  revelation  of  his  duty  to  God  and  to 
man. 

Coercion  must  dwarf  power,  and  when 
dwarfed  and  unused,  power  becomes  de- 
structive of  character.  Evil  springs  from 
misused  good. 

If  you  always  plan  for  a  boy,  his  own 
power  to  plan  will  become  useless;  worse 
than  this,  it  will  become  an  element  of  evil 
instead  of  good. 

When  authority  is  substituted  for  reason, 
the  child  will  become  unreasonable. 

The  child  should  have  a  life  of  his  own, 
and  in  it  he  should  make  his  own  plans' 
and  try  independently  to  work  them  out.' 

In  the  range  of  his  own  life  you  should 
be  his  partner,  to  provide  him  with  ma- 
terials and  tools  to  carry  out  his  plans,  not 
yours. 

It  is  impertinence  and  destructive  im- 
pertinence for  you  to  interfere  with  your 


140 


Adult  and  child 


child,  when  he  is  trying  to  achieve  his  own 
plans  in  his  own  life  department. 

In  his  own  department  the  child  should 
be  free  to  decide  what  to  do  as  well  as  how 
to  do  it.  Your  duty  is  to  approve  his 
effort — not  from  a  man's  standpoint  but 
from  a  child's. 


Chapter   XVII 

Co-operation  stimulates 

The  parent  who  shows  real  interest  in 
a  child's  work,  and  who  expresses  kindly 
appreciation  of  his  efforts  will  help  to  kindle 
his  boy  better  than  he  could  in  any  other 
way,  and  to  kindle  him  is  the  most  vitally 
productive  result  that  can  be  achieved 
in  the  development  of  his  character  and 
his  power. 

The  father  should  be  ready  to  respond 
cheerfully  and  help  his  child,  when  he  has 
made  a  plan  too  great  for  him  to  work 
out  alone.  Such  co-operation,  when  the 
father's  experience  and  skill  help  to  achieve 
the  child's  plan,  will  form  a  bond  of  unity 
between  father  and  son  of  a  vitally  pro- 
ductive character. 

A  boy  whose  father  is  his  partner  in  his 
work,  will  be  glad  to  be  his  father's  partner 
in  his  father's  work. 

Every  boy  whose  father  is  respectful 
to  him  rejoices  to  be  his  father's  partner 

141 


it", 
U 


142 


Adult  and  child 


in  doing  work  planned  by  his  father  for  the 
benefit  of  the  home. 

Work  should  be  joy,  not  merely  labor. 

When  a  boy  works  with  his  father  he  is 
proud  to  have  the  honor  of  doing  so,  and 
gradually  he  will  become  conscious  of  his 
power  to  render  joyous  and  loving  service 
to  father  and  the  other  members  of  the 
family. 

Father  should  be  careful  always  not  to 
chill  his  son's  joy  by  criticism  of  his  work. 
Praise  the  child's  work.  Remember  to 
?.hink  of  the  effort  he  makes,  not  of  the  in- 
trinsic value  of  the  result  of  his  effort. 

West,  the  great  portrait  painter,  said 
his  mother's  kiss  made  him  a  painter.  She 
found  him  trying  to  paint  a  portrait  of  the 
baby,  when  he  was  a  boy,  and  enthusias- 
tically kissed  him. 

West's  portrait  of  the  baby  was  a  crude 
picture  with  many  defects.  His  mother 
might  have  criticised  it,  and  destroyed  his 
interest.  She  kissed  him  and  kindled  him 
at  the  centre  of  his  greatest  power. 

The  four-year-old  girl  is  sweeping  with 
her  little  broom.     Mother  says,  "O  Susan, 


Co-operation  stimulates 


143 


you  are  in  mother's  way."  At  four  Susan 
enjoyed  working  for  mother.  When  she  was 
graduated  from  high  school  at  eighteen 
she  had  power  to  help,  but  she  had  lost 
the  joy  of  service.  Who  robbed  her  of  that 
elemental  moral  power?  Not  God!  Not 
tl.e  devil.     Mother  did. 

Men  used  to  believe  that  the  more  dis- 
tasteful work  is  to  a  child  the  more  it  de- 
veloped his  character.  Vitally  productive 
work  always  gives  joy— joy  in  planning, 
joy  in  working,  joy  in  achieving.  Sorrow 
and  tears  are  opposed  to  the  best  develop- 
ment of  a  child. 

Men  with  the  mournful  philosophy  of 
evil  and  without  vital  faith  in  God  taught 
that  as  "the  earth  is  a  vale  of  tears"  children 
shoxild  be  trained  to  endure  sorrow  when 
young  so  that  they  might  be  able  to  en- 
dure the  evils  they  would  meet  in  daily  life, 
when  they  grow  up. 

Children  must  not  be  trained  to  endure 
evil  but  to  overcome  it. 


Chapter  XVIII 
Life  should  be  joyous 

Children  should  be  trained  to  see  that 
the  world  is  full  of  joy,  so  that  when  they 
meet  sorrow  they  will  be  sure — with  an 
absolute  sureness — that  they  have  within 
their  reach  unlimited  joy  to  enable  them  to 
overcome  their  sorrow. 

Children  trained  to  believe  that  life 
should  be  joyous — not  teary — will  find  at 
maturity  that  their  sorrows  have  not  left 
any  scars  on  their  hearts.  Their  joys  live 
on  as  elements  of  power  to  brighten  their 
own  lives  and  the  lives  of  their  friends. 

You  may  train  children  to  reject  the  sor- 
rows that  come  to  them  and  retain  in  their 
lives  only  the  joys. 

It  is  a  crime  against  the  child  to  put  a 
blight  on  his  happiness.  The  old  faith  in 
solemnity  in  the  home  and  school  was  evil 
in  its  every  influence  on  yoimg  life. 

Whoever  puts  a  smile  on  a  child's  face 
is  working  for  God. 

144 


Life  should  be  joyous 


145 


The  surest  way  to  keep  a  child  happy 
is  to  let  him  play  and  work,  without  impu- 
dently planning  his  play  or  his  work. 

The  reason  a  child  is  happier  at  play  and 
at  work  than  at  any  other  time,  is  that 
play  and  work  are  the  only  supremely  vital 
agencies  for  developing  the  child  com- 
pletely, physically,  intellectually  and  spirit- 
ually. The  reason  they  are  thus  develop- 
ing is  that  they  develop  the  powers  of  joy- 
ous interest  and  productively  constructive 
achievement  in  his  character. 

The  development  of  joy  power  and 
achieving  power  shot  !  J  be  two  of  the  su- 
preme aims  in  child  training. 

"But,"  many  yet  say,  "the  child  does  not 
like  work.  He  will  play  all  day  but  he  soon 
tires  of  work."  Every  child  likes  work. 
He  soon  tires  of  work  /  plan  for  him.  If  he 
continued  to  work  energetically  at  work 
I  plan  for  him,  it  would  be  a  proof  that  his 
original  power  had  been  dwarfed  by  bad 
training. 

No  boy  tires  of  working  with  materials 
suited  to  his  stage  of  developme  it,  if  he  is 
free  to  make  and  the  carry  out  his  plans. 


146 


Adult  and  child 


"I  suppose  a  boy  would  work  all  day  if 
you  let  him  do  as  he  likes,"  answers  the 
old  trainer.  Doing  things  he  likes  to  do, 
is  the  only  process  by  which  he  may  learn 
to  transform  conditions  in  harmony  with 
his  own  plans  based  on  his  own  vision, 
and,  therefore,  it  is  the  most  vital  training 
process  for  making  a  transformer  of  con- 
ditions in  adulthood. 

If  you  train  your  child  by  allowing  him 
to  work  at  what  he  likes  to  do,  when  he  is 
a  child,  work  in  manhood  will  not  be  labor, 
it  will  still  be  joy. 

A  man  who  is  not  on  the  alert  in  adult- 
hood to  see  conditions  that  should  be  trans- 
formed into  better  conditions  can  never 
become  a  truly  vital  citizen.  Allowed  to 
work  freely  at  work  he  likes  because  he 
plans  it,  a  child  becomes  an  independent 
representative  of  the  Divine  who  works 
joyously  for  the  purposes  revealed  to  him. 


Chapter  XIX 

Achieving  vision 

All  children  are  transformers  of  con- 
ditions as  soon  as  they  can  creep.  This 
roveals  the  most  productive  tendency  in 
human  character.  That  most  men  have 
practically  lost  this  tendency  in  manhood 
is  the  clearest  evidence  of  the  weakness 
and  destructiveness  of  the  training  of  the 
past.  The  saddest  tragedy  of  human  life 
is  the  loss  of  this  tendency  to  achieve  our 
visions.  Bad  training  has  robbed  most 
men  of  vision  power,  and  of  achieving 
power. 

Froude  says,  "Every  one  of  us  whatever 
our  speculative  opinions  knows  better 
than  he  practises,  and  recognizes  a  better 
law  than  he  obeys."  This  is  the  great  hu- 
man tragedy.  When  we  first  crept  we 
tried  to  achieve  every  vision  that  we  saw. 
God  meant  this  tendency  to  continue  to 
grow  stronger  in  us.     We  lose  the  tendency 

147 


148 


Adult  and  child 


because  our  training  is  dwarfing  our  indi- 
vidual power. 

The  tendency  to  achieve  our  visions 
and  our  plans  should  increase  in  power  more 
rapidly  than  any  other  power,  because  it 
is  the  most  productive  element  in  our  char- 
acter. The  highest  elements  of  character 
should  develop  most  rapidly. 

It  is  a  serious  crime  against  a  child  to 
rob  him  of  his  greatest  power — his  natural 
achieving  tendency.  We  do  this  always 
when  we  substitute  our  motives  or  plans 
for  his  by  compulsion,  or  when  we  merely 
stop  his  doing. 

Don 'ting  and  stopping  are  essentially 
evil  and  weaken  human  power  in  its  highest 
department.  Negative  training  produces 
negative    character. 

To  change  the  natural  positive  achieving 
tendency  into  the  negative  type  that  in 
adulthood  knows  better  than  it  does,  is 
the  most  serious  crime  against  childhood. 
This  crime  produces  the  greatest  human 
tragedy. 

We  may  help  to  produce  men  and  women 
who  do  not    "  >  as  well  as  they  know  by 


Achievitifi  vision 


149 


teaching  them  good  principles  without  in- 
creasing their  battery  power.  You  may- 
know  very  clearly  that  you  wish  to  drive 
your  automobile  up  the  hill  ahead  of  you, 
but  you  will  not  get  up  the  hill  unless  the 
battery  power  of  your  machine  is  in  good 
order. 

The  emotional  power  of  a  man  is  the 
battery  power  of  his  life,  and  it  should  be 
very  carefully  trained. 

You  may  weaken  the  influence  of  your 
child  for  good  not  merely  by  failure  to  de- 
velop his  emotional  nature,  but  by  develop- 
ing his  good  feelings  without  guiding  him 
to  achieve  the  good  he  plans  in  response 
to  his  good  thoughts  and  his  good  feelings 
or  emotions. 

Some  people  used  to  think  they  had  re- 
ligion when  they  stirred  their  feelings  to 
the  glory  thrill  by  singing  emotional  hymns. 
They  were  merely  weakly  selfish,  happy 
because  they  had  temporary  thrills  of  over- 
powering emotion. 

When  good  emotion  is  kindled  in  the  life 
of  a  child  it  becomes  too  often  a  weakness 
instead  of  a  blessing  because  it  is  not  used 


F  ' 


m 


150 


AiluU  and  chUd 


in  impelling  M"<  ^  the  doing  of  some 
definite  good,  "'liis  is  one  of  many  illus- 
trations of  t  [jlilosophic  truth  that 
"Evil  springs;  f    t:i  u  lused  good." 

"But"  pers-  ts  ;  .  objector,  "while  the 
child  may  w.rt  -j:  Ja"  *  .  let  him  do 
what  he  like:  ro  ,tn,  '  ^>  nt  stick  to  one 
kind  of  work.'  H  .  .rk  would  not  be 
very  developim;  to  h  m  he  did  "stick  to 
one  kind  of  w<.rk'  .  If  h*  does  ten  kinds 
of  work  each  day  he  has  become  conscious 
of  power  to  transform  conditions  in  ten 
ways,  so  this  result  is  ten  times  more  im- 
portant than  transforming  in  only  one  way. 
As  he  grows  older  he  will  become  conscious 
of  moral  conditions  which  he  should  help 
to  transform  into  better  conditions,  and  he 
will  have  the  transforming  habit. 

The  only  vital  way  you  can  develop  the 
transforming  habit  is  by  providing  suita- 
ble materials  and  tools  (not  a  box  of  tools) 
for  your  child  and  giving  him  freedom  in 
planning  and  carrying  out  his  plans.  Yov: 
should  show  vital  sympathy  with  him, 
and  appreciate  his  efforts.     You  should  be 


Achieving  vision 


151 


ready  with  advice  and  help,  when  he  asks 
for  it — but  not  before. 

No  adult  can  make  plans  that  will  fully 
arouse  the  interest  of  a  child. 

By  making  a  child's  plans  for  him,  you 
rob  him  of  initiative :  of  power  to  plan  inde- 
pendently, so  that  he  may  becc*me  creative 
and  not  merely  imitative;  of  the  essential 
power  of  vision;  and  of  the  achieving  power 
which  is  the  supreme  power  ti  at  most 
completely  de\  elops  his  other  powers  and 
gives  them  rea  value  to  humanity  and  to 
his   Creator. 


i 


n 


Chapter  XX 

Habits 

Locke  said,  "The  g.  .at  thing  is  what 
habits  you  settle."  Another  educational 
writer  has  said,  "Good  habits  are  better 
than  good  principles."  Think  this  state- 
ment over  carefully  before  you  reject  it. 

Many  men  have  good  principles  without 
achieving  much  for  their  fellowmen.  The 
habit  of  tiansforming  conditions  into  better 
conditions  is  more  comprehensively  vital 
than  any  principle.  Principles  become 
vital  powers  only  when  we  develop  the 
habit  of  applying  them^  to  the  problems  of 
our  lives. 

It  is  more  vita'  '.-  love  right  and  do  it 
than  to  know  facts  or  commit  catechisms 
to  memory. 

Even  many  leaders  have  incorrect  ideals 
in  regard  to  the  formation  of  habits.  Hab- 
its do  not  become  vital  elements  in  char- 
acter, when  the  child  acts  under  the  domi- 
nant control  of  his  parents  or  teachers. 

152 


Habits 


153 


Most  people  think  that  if  they  compel 
a  child  to  go  in  a  certain  path  today,  and  on 
through  the  years  of  his  childhood,  they  are 
forming  in  him  the  habit  of  following  in 
that  path  always.  They  are  really  forming 
in  his  life  the  habit  of  submission  without 
thought.  That  is  the  basis  of  slavery. 
Children  whose  habits  are  formed  in  this 
way  have  no  vital  habits.  If  they  are  weak 
types  they  may  listlessly  follow  in  the  path 
laid  out;  if  they  are  strong  when  they  leave 
home,  or  sooner,  they  break  the  bonds  of 
such  superficial  habits,  and  being  left  with- 
out vital  habits  they  often  wreck  their 
lives. 

It  is  a  pathetic  experience  for  a  father 
who  supposed  he  had  given  his  son  good 
habits  to  learn  of  the  downfall  of  his  boy; 
how  helpless  he  appears  as  he  tells  his 
friends  how  carefully  he  trained  his  son,  and 
thought  he  had  made  him  form  good  habits. 

No  one  but  the  child  himself  can  develop 
his  habits.  The  motive  that  leads  to  the 
child's  act  must  be  his  own,  if  repetition 
is  to  develop  a  vitally  controlHng  habit. 


154 


Adult  and  child 


Repetition  of  the  same  act  is  not  the  true 
basis  of  vital  habit.  Repetition  of  the  use 
of  the  same  fundamental  principles  in  the 
achievement  of  our  own  visions  in  ac- 
cordance with  our  own  plans,  develops  a 
really  vital  directive  habit. 

The  parent  or  teacher  should  have  much 
to  do  with  the  development  of  the  child's 
habits.  He  should  kindle  his  nature  and 
reveal  ideals  of  trueness  and  pureness 
adapted  to  his  stage  of  development,  and 
rxot  too  high  for  him  to  take  into  his  life  as 
guiding  principles. 

He  should  act  as  a  comrade,  lead  him 
to  despise  what  is  mean,  unclean,  selfish 
and  ungenerous,  and  to  admire  what  is 
manly,  frank,  clean,  and  generous;  and 
never  fail  to  show  real  appreciation  by 
word,  or  hand  clasp,  or  smile,  when  he  is 
forming  habits  by  doing  things  he  decides 
to  do  himself  based  on  these  principles. 

The  one  thing  to  be  avoided  is  attempting 
to  develop  habits  for  the  boy  by  compulsion 
or  by  external  pressure  of  any  kind. 

No  man  can  form  habits  for  another  and 
engraft  them  on  the  other's  life. 


Habits 


155 


When  we  truly  reverence  the  child's 
individuality  we  shall  give  up  the  old  pro- 
cess of  engrafting  by  compulsion,  and  learn 
that  all  soul  growth  must  be  from  within 
out. 

When  we  study  the  child  reverently  and 
wisely  we  shall  recognize  him  as  a  self-active 
soul  with  practically  unlimited  powers  of 
growth  from  within,  and  not  as  a  mere 
being  whom  we  are  to  mould,  whom  we  are 
to  inoculate  with  certain  elements  of  char- 
acter, whom  we  are  to  "sandpaper  into  a 
saint"  by  making  him  smooth  on  the  out- 
side, and  whom  we  are  to  coerce  into  paths 
of  rectitude  by  corporal  punishment,  or 
by  other  coercive  measures. 

"God  neither  ingrafts  not  inoculates. 
Development  is  from  life  through  life  to 
Ufe."— Froebel. 

"Free  obedience  must  take  the  place  of 
blind  obedience."— Froebel. 

"A  free  mind  ought  to  learn  nothing  as 
a    slave."— Plato. 

Most  trainers  of  children  try  to  plant 
habits  in  children's  lives  instead  of  sowing 


ise 


Adult  and  child 


the  seeds  of  habits.  Many  sow  seeds  of 
habits  without  preparing  the  inner  life 
soil  of  the  child,  and  most  of  ihose  who 
sow  seeds  of  habits,  think  they  have  to 
make  the  seeds  grow.  If  we  keep  the  child 
in  right  conditions  with  plenty  of  oppor- 
tunity for  work  with  sympathetic  partner- 
ship with  his  parents,  the  boy  will  grow  his 
own  character  habits. 


Chapter  XXI 

Power  and  character 

Emerson  said,  "Personal  force  never 
goes  out  of  fashion."  Personal  force  of 
character  is  developed,  when  the  child  is 
kindled  at  the  centre  of  his  personal  self- 
hood, or  individual  power;  and  when  his 
emotional  power  is  developed  fully  and 
controlled  by  true  wisdom. 

No  other  way  has  been  revealed  by  which 
a  child  may  become  conscious  of  his  special 
power — and  each  child  has  some  special 
power — except  to  let  him  be  self-active  by 
doing  things  he  plans  himself. 

You  may  make  your  child  an  aimless 
failure  in  life  instead  of  a  triumphant  suc- 
cess by  interfering  with  his  freedom  in 
working  out  his  own  plans,  especially  during 
his  early  years. 

Your  child  will  grow  to  be  relatively  a 
failure,    when   considered   with   what   he 

157 


I 


■M 


158 


Adult  and  child 


might  have  been  unless  he  becomes  con- 
scious of  his  real  selfhood 

The  greatest  thing  a  child's  parents  and 
teachers  can  do  for  him  is  to  help  him  to 
become  conscious  of  his  greatest  element 
of  power. 

Most  parents  and  teachers  yet  are  con- 
tent to  develop  a  child's  power  to  study 
and  memorize  certain  kinds  of  knowledge. 
These  processes  develop  just  two  powers — 
memory  and  concentration,  and  both 
powers  are  developed  in  the  weakest  possi- 
ble way  by  ordinary  school  processes. 

Such  concentration  and  memory  de- 
velopment are  storing  processes  only,  and 
therefore  cannot  develop  vital  character, 
which  is  essentially  propelling,  productive, 
creative  and  achieving. 

Such  work  in  the  schools  leaves  the  vital 
elements  of  human  power  and  character 
unkindled  and  undeveloped,  and  life  can 
never  be  so  productive  for  the  child  him- 
self or  for  humanity  as  it  should  have  been. 

Most  parents  and  teachers  yet  test  the 
success  of  a  child's  educational  develop- 


Power  and  character 


159 


ment  by  his  brightness  in  book  work.  This 
is  the  most  unreUable  of  all  the  tests.  Few 
head  boys  become  great  leaders  in  dealing 
with  the  problems  of  life. 

Edward  Everett  Hale  said  that  a  distin- 
guished teacher  told  him  that  few  parents 
had  ever  forgiven  him  if  he  said;  "Your 
boy  is  thoroughly  pure  and  good,  but  he 
is  not  quick  or  bright";  but  if  he  said, 
"Your  boy  learns  his  lessons  well;  he  is  at 
the  head  of  his  class",  nine  out  of  ten  parent 
were  satisfied  even  if  he  added,  "I  wish  I 
could  say  he  was  honest,  pure  and  unself- 
ish." 

Cleverness  in  book  knowledge  is  abso- 
lutely unreliable  as  a  test  of  character, 
because  to  be  clever  in  study  does  not  call 
into  action  any  of  the  fundamentally  vital 
elements  of  power  and  character. 

A  boy  at  an  examination  wrote,  "A  col- 
lege is  a  cemetery  of  learning."  So  long 
as  schools  and  colleges  direct  attention  to 
learning  from  books,  mainly,  and  neglect 
the  development  of  the  child's  productive 
character  powers,  this  deunition  will  entitle 


160 


Adult  and  child 


the  boy  who  wrote  it  to  receive  a  good  pass 
mark  for  his  definition. 

President  Eliot  said,  "The  fruit  of  liberal 
education  is  not  learning,  but  the  capacity 
and  desire  to  learn;  not  knowledge,  but 
power." 

We  should  never  forget  that  all  children 
"desire  to  learn"  in  response  to  the  leading 
of  their  natural  wonder  power,  till  they  go 
to  school,  and  are  changed  from  problem 
finders  to  problem  solvers. 

Aristotle  wrote,  "The  intellect  is  per- 
fected not  by  knowledge,  but  by  activity." 
This  statement  is  more  comprehensively 
vital  than  the  statement  of  President 
Eliot. 

Montaigne  said,  "To  know  by  heart  is 
not  to  know  at  all." 

Sir  Joshua  Fitch  said,  "Of  all  the  exer- 
cises of  the  school  there  is  none  which  has 
so  little  heart  learning  as  learning  by  heart." 

Miss  Blow  said,  "Knowledge  is  good, 
but  creation  is  life." 

There  are  many  things  more  vitally  im- 
portant in  the  development  of  character 
than  knowledge.     Some  day  the  work  of 


Power  and  character 


161 


the  schools  will  be  based  on  the  child,  and 
not  on  the  studies  to  be  learned;  on  the 
specified  human  powers  regarded  as  vital, 
and  not  on  preparation  for  the  passing  of 
prescribed  examinations. 

Thring,  the  great  English  headmaster 
said;  "Knowledge  with  its  broken  victuals, 
and  its  half-starved  paupers  snatching  at 
the  scraps,  has  lorded  it  long  enough.  It 
is  high  ti'ne  to  turn  to  better  things,  to 
liberty,  to  the  free  use  of  active  powers" 

Never  forget  that  all  the  old  educational 
processes  that  are  based,  mainly,  on  the 
direct  development  of  the  child's  memory 
are  ineffective  even  in  the  development 
of  memory  itself,  and  useless  in  the  culti- 
vation of  real  individual  executive  power, 
if  not  destructive  of  it. 

Remember  especially  that  all  teaching 
is  weak  if  not  positively  evil,  that  weakens 
the  individual  power  of  the  child  by  the 
processes  used  in  communicating  knowledge 
to  him. 

You  are  responsible  if  you  let  any  school 
dwarf  your  boy,  by  keeping  him  at  work 
on  the  lowest  levels  of  his  power  instead 


162 


Adult  and  child 


i.m 


of  guiding  him  to  the  free  use  of  his  highest 
powers  to  develop  his  mind  most  fully,  to 
promote  constructive  productivity,  creative 
activity,  and  vital  achieving  character. 
Never  worry  yourself,  nor  your  child, 
because  he  does  not  keep  near  the  head  of 
his  class  in  book  knowledge.  On  the  whole 
that  may  be  a  hopeful  indication. 


Chapter  XXII 

Good  and  bad  children 

Never  call  a  child  "bad".  By  doing  so 
you  define  the  ideal  of  badness  instead  of 
goodness  in  his  mind. 

The  man  or  woman  who  fixes  in  the  na- 
ture of  a  child  the  idea  that  he  is  bad  is  an 
agent  of  evil.     The  ideal  degrades  the  child 
even  if  the  adult  does  not  understand  the 
senous  results  of  the  crime  against  the  child 
Tram  your  child  to  do  good,  not  merely 
to  keep  away  from  evil.    A  dodger  of  bad 
may  be  of  no  use  to  humanitv  or  to  God 
Do  not  train  your  boy  to  be  afraid  of 
evil;  tram  him  to  understand  that  he  can 
overcome  the  uTong. 

Give  him  faith  in  right  so  that  he  may 
believe  that  evil  is  not  strong,  when  men 
and  women  of  real  faith  attack  it. 

One  of  the  most  pathetic  illustrations 
ot  human  weakness  is  a  man  who  says  he 
beheves  in  God,  and  yet  dreads  to  face  the 
powers  of  evil. 

163 


164 


Adult  and  child 


If  there  is  a  boy  in  your  neighborhood 
who  in  your  opinion  is  not  as  good  as  you 
think  he  should  be,  do  not  be  a  social  craven 
and  refuse  to  let  your  boy  associate  with 
him.  The  comradeship  of  your  son  may 
sweeten  the  boy's  life  and  help  him  to  be 
a  true  man. 

It  is  remarkable  how  many  good  (not 
goody)  men  were  called  bad  when  they 
were  young. 

It  is  wonderful  how  many  ways  a  boy 
may  be  bad  in  the  opinion  of  old  fellows 
who  act  as  if  they  had  never  been  boys 
themselves. 

The  wickedest  men  in  a  community  are 
sometimes  men  who  assume  to  be  Christ's 
followers,  and  yet  spend  a  good  deal  of 
time  manufacturing  new  sins  for  boys  to 
commit. 

Some  preachers  and  some  teachers  yet 
tell  children  not  to  associate  with  those 
whom  they  call  "bad".  Try  to  imorove 
them,  and  remind  them  of  their  predecessors 
who  found  fault  with  Christ  because  "He 
received  sinners  and  even  ate  with  them." 
If  they  will  not  improve,  send  your  boy  to 


Good  and  bad  children 


165 


some  other  teacher,  and  try  to  get  a  better 
pastor. 

One  of  the  clearest  lessons  taught  by 
Christ  was  the  value  of  social  unity  and  the 
interdependence  of  the  men  and  women 
and  children  of  society.  Do  not  risk  your 
boy's  future  with  a  teacher  who  tries  to  rob 
the  boy  who  probably  more  than  any  otht  r 
boy  in  the  neighborhood  nciuis  ccinrade- 
ship,  of  the  right  to  social  uniiy  with  his 
fellows. 

Help  your  child  to  become  a  doer  of  un- 
selfish things,  not  a  mere  dodger  of  evil 
--especially  not  a  self-righteous  dodger  of 
his  fellows. 

A  mother  came  to  a  gentleman  who  was 
lecturing  on  educational  subjects  in  her 
city  and  said;  "I  am  the  mother  of  the 
worst  three-year-old  child  in  this  state. 
I  was  a  teacher  till  I  was  married,  and  I 
know  all  about  training  children.  I  cannot 
understand  his  case.  I  have  never  left  him 
alone  during  the  time  he  was  awake,  and 
I  have  never  permitted  him  to  play  with 
another  child.  I  have  punished  him  and 
punished  him,  so  it  cannot  be  my  fault 


166 


Adult  and  child 


that  he  is  bad.  What  would  you  advise 
me  to  do?"  The  heartless  man  replied; 
"If  you  are  prepared  to  die,  die.  Your 
boy  has  no  chance  with  you  in  control  of 
his  training.  If  you  are  not  willing  to  die 
yet,  get  him  an  intelligent,  jolly,  young 
woman  as  comrade,  and  abdicate  in  her 
favor.  Let  her  take  him  to  a  kinder- 
garten every  day  to  see  the  children  play 
and  work.  Tell  her  to  get  him  the  ma- 
terials he  sees  the  other  children  using  so 
that  he  may  use  them  to  make  things  that 
he  likes  to  make.  Ask  her  to  invite  other 
little  children  to  play  with  him  in  your 
yard.  When  he  is  old  enough  let  her  take 
him  and  leave  him  in  the  kindergarten. 
You  have  stood  between  the  child  and  God 
in  almost  every  way  possible. 

"You  have  robbed  him  of  companionship 
and  by  doing  that  alone  you  have  inter- 
fered with  the  growth  of  nearly  every  spirit- 
ual and  communal  element  of  his  power. 

"By  preventing  the  growth  of  his  good 
elements  of  power,  you  have  not  desf  oyed 
them.  You  have  done  much  worse  than 
that— you    have    perverted    them.     All 


Good  and  bad  children 


167 


the  powers  of  evil  you  say  he  possesses 
were  gifts  of  his  Creator  as  powers  for  good 
to  make  him  sweet,  and  pure,  and  un- 
selfish, and  sociable,  and  spiritual,  but  his 
mother  •  erverted  them,  and  the  identical 
elements  intended  to  bless  him  and  his 
fellowmen,  you  have  used  to  degrade  him. 
"A  pure  spring  will  make  a  pestilential 
marsh  instead  of  a  rippling  stream  if  the 
freedom  of  its  flow  is  prevented.     You  have 
stopped  the  free  outflox-  of  the  greatest 
elements  in  your  child's  life,  and  turned 
blessmgs  into  blighting  evils. 

"You  say  he  destroys  the  toys  you  buy 
for  him  just  to  gratify  his  destructive  ten- 
dencies.    This  should  prove  to  you  that 
he  has  great  natural  constructive  power. 
The  elements  of  power  that  were  given  to 
make  children  constructive  and  ultimately 
productive  will,  when  unused  or  misused, 
make  them  destructive. 
^  "You  strangled  most  of  his  good  tenden- 
cies, as  soon  as  he  got  out  of  his  cradle. 
Unless  you  get  them  to  work  along  natural 
hnes    'their    ghosts   will  return   in   after 
years  in  the  form  of  grovelling  sensuality.'  " 


Chapter  XXIII 
The  right  of  choice 

One  unused  or  misused  element  of  po'^er 
will  weaken  character.  It  may  unbalance 
character. 

Will  power  without  conscious  power  of 
choice  may  become  mere  stubborn  wilful- 
ness. 

Begin  very  early  to  give  your  child  the 
right  of  choosing  his  or  her  personal  belong- 
ings. Take  yotir  little  three-year-old  J^rl 
with  you  when  you  are  going  to  buy  her  a 
hair  ribbon  or  a  dress.  Let  her  see  severU 
ribbons  or  dress  patterns  at  the  price  you 
intend  to  pay,  and  let  the  child  choose  the 
color  or  pattern  she  likes  best.  You  spend 
exactly  the  same  amount  as  you  would 
have  spent  by  treating  the  child's  taste 
with  contempt  and  choosing  the  color  or 
pattern  you  liked  best,  and  you  make  the 
child  genuinely  haopy.  Better  even  than 
that,  you  make  hor  conscious  of  choice- 
power,   which  is  essential  in  developimg 

effective  will  power. 

168 


The  right  of  choice 


169 


Take  your  ten-year-old  boy  with  you  to 
a  store.  Tell  the  salesman  the  amount 
you  can  afford  to  pay  for  the  boy's  new  suit. 
Get  out  several  suits  of  different  cut  and 
color,  and  let  the  boy  choose  his  own  clothes. 
He  has  to  wear  them,  not  you.  He  will 
have  a  feeling  much  more  developing  to 
his  better  manhood,  when  he  wears  that 
suit,  than  he  would  have  enjoyed  if  you  had 
selected  the  same  suit  for  him. 

Recognize  in  every  department  of  your 
child's  life  his  right  of  choice  within  the 
limit  of  directive  law,  or  you  miss  three 
great  opportunities  for  his  true  develop- 
ment; partnership  with  you,  consciousness 
of  the  right  of  choice,  and  respect  for  di- 
rective law. 

The  preservation  of  the  harmony  between 
liberty  and  law  in  your  child's  mind  must 
be  developed  by  experience  and  not  by 
instruction,  if  it  is  to  have  vital  influence 
in  his  moral  force. 

You  should  not  even  choose  the  pro- 
fession or  occupation  your  child  is  to  follow 
through  life.  When  he  is  old  enough  to 
think  clearly,  you  should  say,  "I  will  not 


170 


Adult  and  child 


decide  for  you.  I  will  give  you  advice  as 
fully  as  I  can,  when  you  begin  to  consider 
the  matter ;  and  when  you  have  chosen  after 
consideration,  I  will  be  your  partner  in 
giving  the  best  preparation  I  can  afford 
for  your  work." 

Two  questions  are  often  asked  of  teachers 
"What  shall  I  make  of  my  boy?"  and 
"What  do  you  think  my  boy  is  best  fitted 
for?"  The  first  is  adult  presumption; 
the  second  is  considerate  wisdom. 

The  modem  movement  for  vocational 
guidance  in  schools  is  most  important. 
Parents,  teachers,  and  graduating  children 
should  most  carefully  consider  the  step 
that  will  have  most  vital  influence  in  de- 
ciding the  future  life  of  the  children.  In 
.the  conference  regarding  the  child's  voca- 
tion, the  child  himself  should  be  the  central 
figure.  Parents  and  teachers  should  be 
advisory  comrades. 

Be  sure  that  the  decision  in  regard  to  the 
child's  life  work  is  not  left  to  chance. 

Children  should  be  trained  early  to  under- 
stand the  value   of   money,  not  for  itself 


The  right  of  choice 


171 


but  for  the  uses  that  may  be  made  of  it. 
Thrift  is  a  fundamental  virtue. 

Wastefulness,  indifference  in  regard  to 
saving  small  things  of  small  value,  rags, 
papers,  old  rubbers,  old  metal,  etc.  is  one 
of  the  universal  sins. 

When  grandpa  gives  five  cents  to  a  child 
and  says,  "Go  and  buy  yourself  some  candy, 
dear,"  he  does  so  from  kindness  of  heart, 
but  he  is  really  giving  the  child  a  training 
in  two  character-destroying  tendencies: 
wastefulness  by  spending  money  for  what 
he  does  not  need,  and  the  gratification  of 
appetite  which  may  lay  the  foundation  for 
degrading  indulgence  of  appetite  in  later 
years. 

Even  the  food  of  children  during  their 
early  years  requires  careful  study  by  parents 
and  physicians.  It  is  quite  possible  to  give 
a  child  debasing  appetites  by  improper 
feeding  before  he  is  four  years  old. 

Every  child  should  have  a  garden  of  his 
own  where  he  may  grow  what  he  pleases, 
flowers  or  vegetables  or  both,  not  mainly 
for  the  profit  there  may  be  in  his  work. 


172 


Adult  and  child 


but  for  the  moral  and  spiritual  uplift  of 
partnership  with  God  in  producing  beauty 
and  value. 

All  that  a  boy  can  save  from  the  produce 
of  his  garden  or  from  any  other  way  of 
earning  money,  he  should  be  trained  to 
deposit  in  his  school  bank  in  order  to  de- 
velop the  important  habit  of  thrift. 


Chapter  XXIV 

Spiritual   vision 

Relate  your  child  to  Nature.  All  child- 
ren love  nature.  Train  your  child  to  see 
the  beauty  of  flowers  and  trees,  of  river 
and  lake,  of  hill  and  dale. 

Let  him  find  his  own  temple  in  the  shady 
glen  or  under  the  hemlock  on  the  hilltop. 
Let  him  enjoy  the  ecstasy  of  being  alone 
in  the  open  or  in  his  chosen  temple.  He 
may  have  visions  there  that  he  could  never 
get  from  books,  or  in  the  most  beautiful 
temples  ever  built  by  man. 

He  may  not  be  conscious  of  his  visions, 
but  they  will  sink  deep  into  his  soul  and 
in  due  time  will  become  the  centres  of  his 
spiritual  vision  and  power. 

Do  not  try  to  fill  your  child's  life  with 
your  adult  spiritual  visions.  Spiritual 
dyspepsia  is  the  most  soul-destroying  dis- 
ease known  to  humanity. 

Knowledgi^  cramming  is  absurdly  wicked, 
spiritual    cramming    is    infinitely    worse. 

17.3 


174 


Adult  and  child 


It  is  foolish  to  think  that  children  can 
be  trained  to  think  by  "letting  other  peo- 
ple's thoughts  run  through  their  heads"; 
it  is  more  disastrously  foolish  to  suppose 
that  children's  spiritual  power  can  be  de- 
veloped by  letting  other  people's  spiritual 
visions  or  ideals  pass  through  their  souls. 

Before  a  mental  ideal  can  be  understood 
we  must  have  formed  by  experience  ap- 
perceptive centres  in  our  minds  related  to 
the  new  ideal.  It  is  more  vitally  true 
that  before  new  spiritual  vision  can  come 
to  our  souls,  we  must  have  developed  by 
experience  apperceptive  elements  of  cor- 
responding spiritual  vision  in  our  souls. 

The  best  way  to  prepare  the  soul  of  a 
child  for  spiritual  insight  and  vitally  un- 
folding spiritual  vision,  is  tc  relate  him  to 
God  through  Nature  in  her  growth  pro- 
cesses from  life  to  higher  life,  and  through 
the  wonders  of  the  universe. 

The  greatest  things  in  the  child's  life  are 
developed  by  his  consciousness  of  the  unseen 
life  in  life  and  in  life  behind  life.  James 
Freeman  Clarke  wrote;  "He  who  believes 
is  strong;  he  who  doubts  is  weak."     No 


Spiritual  vision 


175 


man  can  preach  or  teach  in  words  vital 
faith  in  unseen  power  to  a  child  so  as  to 
kindle  him,  but  it  is  easy  to  relate  even  a 
little  child  to  Nature  and  the  universe 
so  that  a  definite  consciousness  of  the  un- 
seen power  behind  them  and  through  them 
may  be  revealed  to  him. 

The  supreme  purposes  in  training  a  child 
should  be: — 

1.  The  revelation  of  his  selfhood. 

2.  The  revelation  of  his  responsibility 
for  using  for  humanity  the  special  power 
he  possesses.  This  is  the  only  vital  basis 
on  which  his  sense  of  duty  rests. 

3.  The  consciousness  that  new  power 
and  new  vision  come  to  him  only  by  using 
today  the  vision  and  power  he  has. 

4.  The  most  vitally  developing  con- 
sciousness of  all,  that  there  is  an  unseen 
power  which  is  the  source  of  all  power. 
He  should  ultimately  know  that  this  power 
is   God. 

These  four  elements  are  the  vital  ele- 
ments of  strong  and  triumphantly  happy 
character. 


176 


Adult  and  child 


Train  your  child  to  feel  it  in  the  fibre 
of  his  being  that  though  he  may  fall,  he 
cannot  fail  so  long  as  h("  rises  again  and  re- 
news the  struggle  towafls  the  crest. 
Lowell  says,  "The  greatest  ^ut  the  hero 
leaves  his  race  is  to  have  bt  n  a  hero." 

Have  faith  in  the  children.  You  can 
never  help  your  child  to  go  higher  than 
your  faith  in  him. 

If  you  have  perfect  faith  in  him,  he  will 
come  to  have  perfect  faith  in  you. 

Be  your  child's  genuine  comrade.  You 
cannot  pass  any  spurious  chumship  on  him. 

Develop  the  power  of  living  with  your 
children,  not  merely  for  them. 

Try  to  remember  your  own  viewpoint 
in  childhood,  so  that  you  may  develop  the 
vital  power  of  looking  at  the  child  and  his 
world  from  his  standpoint  in  dealing  with 
him,  and  in  estimating  the  value  of  his 
work. 

With  your  child  be  as  fully  as  you  can 
be  in  head  and  in  heart  a  child. 

Patterson  Du  Bois  said  that  of  the  thou- 
sands of  questions  written  to  him  while  he 
was  editor  of  the  Sunday  School  Times, 


Spiritual  vision 


177 


about  training  children,  only  one  was  based 
on  the  child's  viewpoint. 

A  great  teacher  said:  "When  I  was  four 
years  old  I  got  a  pencil  and  some  paper 
and  I  made  a  picture.  It  meant  a  great 
deal  to  me.  It  was  a  visible  representation 
of  an  ideal  of  my  own.  My  joy  was  in- 
tense. I  ran  to  share  my  joy  with  my 
mother.  She  was  busy.  She  glanced  at 
my  picture  but  saw  nothing  but  meaning- 
less lines  though  the  vision  in  my  soul 
was  clear  and  inspiring  to  me.  She  merely 
said,  'If  I  could  not  draw  better  than  that 
I  would  not  draw  at  all.'  My  mother 
shut  a  gate  between  her  soul  and  mine  that 
day  that  was  nev     re-opened." 

It  is  easy  to  shut  gates  between  your  soul 
and  your  child's  soul.  It  is  hard  to  re- 
open them. 

You  may  put  a  scar  on  your  child's 
heart  easily,  without  intending  to  do  so, 
but  you  may  not  easily  remove  the  scar. 

If  you  prick  a  tender  leaf  in  the  spring 
you  will  form  a  scar  that  will  remain  on  the 
leaf  till  the  autumn  winds  bear  it  away. 
It  is  a  serious  thing  to  scar  a  child's  heart. 


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178 


Adult  and  child 


To  the  sensitively  considerate  heart 
of  an  adult — parent  or  teacher — there  can 
be  no  memory  more  full  of  poignant  regret 
than  the  memory  of  a  child's  face  on  which 
we  put  a  dark  shadow,  or  a  tear  that  ran 
from  a  tender  heart  wounded  by  lack  of 
sympathy  and  considerate  response  on  our 
part. 

To  keep  our  lives  in  tune  with  our 
children  it  will  help  to  remember  the  re- 
morse of  the  father  who  wrote: 

'Twas  the  dear  little  girl  that  I  scolded — 

For,  "Was  it  a  moment  Uke  this," 
I  said,  "when  she  knew  I  was  busy, 

To  come  romping  in  for  a  kiss? 
Come  rowdying  up  from  her  mother 

And  clamoring  there  at  my  knee 
For  'one  'ittle  kiss  for  my  dolly. 

And  one  'ittle  uzzer  for  me'?" 
God  pity  the  heart  that  repelled  her 

And  the  cold  hand  that  turned  her  away! 
And  take  from  the  lips  that  denied  her 

This  answerless  prayer  of  today! 
Take,  Lord,  from  my  memory  forever 

That  pitiful  sob  of  despair. 


'Spiritual  vision 


179 


And  the  patter  and  trip  of  the  little  bare 
feet, 
And  the  one  p"jrcing  cry  on  the  stair! 

Solomon  said;  "Train  up  a  child  in  the 
way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he 
will  not  depart  from  it.  Remember  that 
.  "HE"  and  "GO"  are  the  most  important 
words  in  Solomon's  advice.  Remember, 
too,  that  the  word  translated  "train"  in 
Solomon's  advice  is  used  only  three  times 
in  the  Bible  and  that  it  means  clearing 
away  difficulties  that  prevent  vital  action. 


y^ 


■■■•»y 


Chapter  XXV 

A  vital  educational  creed 

I  believe: 

That  God  is  the  Creator,  the  source  of 
life,  the  essence  of  life  which  gives  it  the 
power  of  evolution  to  higher  life,  and  the 
centre  of  universal  unity. 

That  God  and  the  child  are  the  essential 
elements  in  all  true  educational  thought 
and  investigation. 

Thti'  n?f,n'3  highest  destiny  is  unity  or 
inner  connection  with  God. 

That  the  perfect  community  of  humanity 
is  the  only  sure  foundation  f^'-  the  complete 
unity  of  humanity  with  God. 

That  the  fullest  development  of  the 
individual  is  the  true  basis  for  the  perfect 
community  or  inter-relationship  of  hu- 
manity. Race-inclusive  ind:  iduals  form 
an  individual  race. 

T'  ■-  the  highest  function  of  education 
is  tu  ctid  in  the  complete  development  of 
individuality  as  the  true  basis  for  the  com- 

180 


A  vital  educational  creed 


181 


munity  of  humanity  and  the  unity  of  hu- 
manity with  God. 

That  the  self-good  of  the  child  is  the 
element  of  divinity  in  it. 

That  no  one  can  be  a  true  teacher,  until 
his  reverence  for  the  sacredness  of  individu- 
ality or  self-hood  is  strong  enough  to  pre- 
vent his  interference  with  its  perfect  de- 
velopment. 

That  self-activity— the  activity  of  self- 
hood—is the  only  possible  process  by  which 
self -hood  or  individuality  can  be  developed. 

That  activity  in  response 'f^  the  direct 
suggestion  or  command  of  another  is  in 
no  sense  true  self-activity. 

That  every  individual  should  be  self- 
propulsive  and  self-directing;  positive, 
not  negative. 

That  children  who,  during  their  school 
and  college  cources,  study  and  act  only  in 
response  to  suggestions  or  instructions  from 
their  teachers,  are  being  trained  to  be  obe- 
dient followers  merely,  who  may  possibly 
act  well  under  direction,  but  whose  only 
positiveness  of  character  results  from  their 


182 


Adult  and  child 


incidental  training  outside  the  school  and 
college. 

That  even  responsive  activity  is  infinitely 
better  than  receptive  passivity  on  the  part 
of  the  pupil;  but  the  only  true  developing 
activity  is  that  in  which  the  child's  ex- 
ecutive work  results  from  its  own  origina- 
tive and  directive  powers. 

That  self-expression  is  the  only  ideal  of 
expression  worthy  of  recognition  by  edu- 
cators. All  lower  ideals  of  expression, 
orally,  or  in  writing,  or  by  drawing,  mod- 
eling, painting,  or  in  any  other  way,  are 
destructive  of  power.  Expression  should 
be  the  highest  agency  for  developing  power 
instead  of  destroying  it. 

That  the  best  test  of  efficiency  of  an  edu- 
cational method  is  the  amount  of  true 
self-activity  it  requires  of  the  child  in  the 
originative,  directive,  and  executive  de- 
partments of  its  power. 

That  there  are  evolutionary  stages,  or 
culture  epochs,  in  the  complete  develop- 
ment of  individual  power  and  character. 

That  complete  development  in  maturity 
is  impossible,  unless  there  has  been  complete 


A  vital  educational  creed  183 

appropriate  development  in  each  of  the 
preceding  stages  of  evolution. 

That  development  is  always  arrested, 
when  work  adapted  to  a  higher  evclution- 
ary  stage  is  forced  prematurely  upr  the 
attention  of  a  child. 

That  it  is  a  grievous  wrong  to  give  a 
child  more  knowledge  or  more  power  to 
acquire  knowledge,  without  at  the  same 
time,  and,  as  far  as  possible  by  the  same 
process,  increasing  its  power  and  tendency 
to  use  knowledge. 

That  the  educational  methods  of  the 
past  have  developed  the  sensor  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  motor  system,  and  that  there- 
fore men  have  become  more  receptive 
than  executive.  Educational  methods 
should  develop  the  motor  system  and  es- 
tablish the  necessary  reactions  between 
the  sensor  and  motor  systems. 

That  the  power  of  problem  discovery 
is  the  greatest  intellectual  power.  The 
schools  dwarf  pupils  by  making  them 
problem  solvers  only.  Before  children  go 
to  school  they  are  problem  discoverers  as 
well  as  problem  solvers. 


184 


Adult  and  child 


That  the  natural  wonder-power  and  the 
power  of  problem  discovery  would  in- 
crease throughout  a  man's  whole  life,  :i 
their  development  were  not  arrested  by 
unwise  methods  in  schools. 

That  wonder-power  and  problem-dis- 
covery, are  the  essential  elements  in  alert 
and  aggressive  interest. 

That  alert,  aggressive,  persistent,  and 
self-active  interest  is  the  true  stimulus  to 
productive  intellectual  effort. 

That  the  child's  attention  should  be  self- 
active.  Teachers  have  no  right  to  control 
attention.  Interest  and  attention  act  spon- 
taneously if  the  proper  conditions  of  in- 
terest aie  provided. 

Thp"^  <■  i"?  always  wrong  to  substitute 
the  t  interests  for  the  child's  in- 

terest teacher's  duty  is  to  provide 

condit.  of  interest  adapted  to  the  evo- 
lutionary stage  of  the  child. 

That  one  of  the  most  important  duties 
of  educators  is  to  form  by  experience  in 
the  child's  mind  in  the  earliest  stage  of 
its  development,  as  wide  a  range  as  possi- 
ble of  apperceptive  centers  of  feeling,  that 


A  vital  educational  creed  185 

thoughts  communicated  during  the  period 
of  conscious  development  may  have  vi- 
tality and  meaning.  The  outer  can  never 
be  made  clear,  unless  there  is  in  the  mner 
at  least  a  germ  to  which  the  outer  may  be 
related. 

That  new  knowledge  becomes  a  part  of 
our  permanent  mental  equipment  and  an 
element  in  character  only  when  the  corres- 
ponding inner  feeling  and  knowledge  are 
aroused  sufficiently  to  lead  to  a  perfect 
unir^n  between  the  old  and  new.  The 
increase  of  knowledge  should  be  by  amal- 
gamation, not  by  mere  accumulation. 

That  the  activity  of  the  self-hood  of  the 
child  is  the  only  certain  way  of  making 
the  mind  actively  and  aggressively  apper- 
ceptive; the  only  way  by  which  interest 
can  become  persistently  investigative  and 
truly  stimulative. 

That  the  child's  centre  of  interest  is  the 
true  guide  in  the  correlation  or  concentra- 
tion of  studies. 

That  Nature  is  the  most  attractive,  the 
most   suggestive,   the  most   enlightening 


186 


Adult  and  child 


and  the  most  productive  cor  elating  centre 
for  childhood. 

That  the  history  of  man's  achievements, 
the  revelation  of  the  best  ideals  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  the  co-ordination  of  the  uplifting 
forces  of  society  are  the  central  rivers  to 
which  all  educational  streams  should  be 
tributary  above  the  primary  school,  includ- 
ing the  work  in  colleges  and  universities. 

That  the  physical,  intellectual,  and 
spiritual  natures  should  be  trained  as  a 
unity,  and  that  the  weakest  department  of 
power  should  receive  most  careful  culture. 

That  informal  training  is  more  pro- 
ductive than  formal  training  in  all  depart- 
ments of  human  power. 

That  children  -c  productive  work 
better  than  idlentw^.  They  may  not  like 
the  work  we  choose  for  them.  It  would 
indicate  deterioration  if  they  did.  They 
like  more  developing  work  than  ours,  if 
we  have  wisdom  sufficient  to  place  them 
in  conditions  of  proper  independent  choice. 
The  power  to  choose  wisely,  to  decide 
correctly,  and  to  contrc'  one's  own  powers 
in  achieving  good  purposes,  is  even  more 


A  vital  educational  creed 


1H7 


important  than  the  power  of  accomplish- 
ment, which  becomes  merely  mechanical 
if  divorced  from  orijjinality  of  conception. 

That  it  is  not  necessary  to  destroy  a 
child's  power  in  order  to  change  it;  direc- 
tion. Most  of  what  has  been  called  disci- 
pline in  schools  has  crippled  in  order  to 
control. 

That  coercion  is  always  destructive  of 
character  power. 

That  while  human  tendency  is  not  always 
towards  the  Divine,  human  power  is  al- 
ways divine. 

That  if  *^he  child's  power  is  used  in  crea- 
tive self-activity  for  right  purposes,  it  will 
lift  the  child  progressively  towards  the 
Divine. 


